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In the spring of 1892, Beardsley began a series of drawings in which the influence of Whistler and Japanese woodcuts is also apparent and by the summer of 1892 was producing such pen-and-ink drawings as Le Débris d’un poète ('The remains of a poet'), which mark the emergence of his mature style. The most remarkable feature of this is Beardsley's ability to create extremely austere, beautifully organized compositions in which, with often minimal means, he nevertheless achieves vivid evocations of both physical and psychological facts. It is this tension between the picture as an autonomous visual structure and as a representation of some aspect of reality that makes him appear so modern. Le Débris d’un poète is probably a self-portrait referring to his hated clerking job, his literary ambitions, and his health.
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