Phil May: His Life and Work, 1864-1903

Phil May (1864-1903) was one of two outstanding British black-and-white artists of the 1890s: the other was Aubrey Beardsley. May was the obverse side of the Beardsley coin, equally redolent of the fin de siecle, equally bohemian, equally refined in line, but the jester rather than the aesthete. His world was that of ordinary people at the pub, the club, the racecourse, the theatre and the East End, with occasional sallies into polite society.This book examines May's sad and equivocal private life and tries to relate this to his art. Without training, destitute as a teenager and searching for an identity, May spent some years in Australia before returning to achieve general acclaim as a foremost illustrator. How did an alcoholic who had great difficulty in managing his life succeed as such a prolific artist? How did May's gregariousness and generosity tally with his inner loneliness and uncertainty? Was Punch, the magazine that he worked on for ten years, a blessing or a burden? Highly regarded by James McNeill Whistler and Joseph Pennell, May died in comparative poverty.