"There is no doubt about your gift, one day you will most asuredly paint very great and beautiful pictures...All [these drawings] are full of thought, poetry and imagination. Nature has given you every gift which is necessary to become a great artist. I seldome or never advise anyone to take up art as a profession, but in your case I can do nothing else. "
- Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones On seeing Aubrey Beardsley's drawings
"Aubrey, I have made a very great mistake; you are a very great artist. I mean it, I mean it."
- James McNeill Whistler On seeing Beardsley's designs for Pope's The Rape of the Lock. Aubrey burst into tears.
