Oscar Wilde

"Wilde Words", Pictures, Caricatures, and Illustrations

Wilde Words

Oscar Wilde "THE MODERN MESSIAH" [Sunflower here is the icon of the aesthetic movement.

from Wilde's visit to San Francisco, the Museum of the City of San Francisco.

"During the winter months there were published in the Wasp and in other California publications occasional jingles about Wilde and the Aesthetes; a popular song entitled "Oscar Dear" was received with condescending humor in the city's gay spots; and the slang of the moment included such supposedlyWildean expressions as 'too utterly utter,' 'just too too,' and 'do you yearn?'"

More Wilde Words...

Aestheticism

--"Art never expresses anything but itself."

--"The artist is the creator of beautiful things."

--"One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art."

--"The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered."

More Wilde Wit...

Caricatures

" Oscar Wilde on Our Cast-Ironn Stoves"
From Harper's Weekly, 1882
Cartoon illustration by Thomas Nast
Prints and Photograghs Division

Photographs

Oscar, Wilde,1882
Photograph by Napoleon Sarony
Prints and Photographs Division

Oscar Wilde, 1882
Photograph by NApoleon Sarony
Prints and Photographs Division

Illustrations by Oscar Wilde

Title page from Salome
By Oscar Wilde,, 1894

" The Peacockk Dance"
From Salome, by Oscar Wilde, 1894
Illustration by Aubrey Beardsley

" John and Salome"
From Salome, by Oscar Wilde, 1894
Illustration by Aubrey Beardsley