Phase or branch of Symbolism in 1880s and 1890s and many artists and writers seen as both. Term came into use 1880s e. G. French journal Le Décadent 1886. Generally refers to extreme manifestations of Symbolism emphasising the spiritual, the morbid and the erotic. Decadents inspired partly by disgust at corruption and rampant materialism of modern world, partly by concomitant desire to escape it into realms of aesthetic, fantastic, erotic, religious. In art key influence from Rossetti and then Burne-Jones. Key artists abroad Khnopff, Moreau, Rops; in Britain Beardsley, Simeon Solomon. Key books Huysmans A Rebours (Against Nature) and Wilde Dorian Gray.