Oscar Wilde

Sitterback to top

• Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Wit and dramatist. Sitter in 12 portraits.

Artistback to top

• Napoleon Sarony (1821-1896). Artist associated with 31 portraits.

This portraitback to top

A wit and dramatist, Wilde was renowned as an aesthete from an early age. His unconventional behaviour, witty and paradoxical remarks and dandified pose brought him notoriety while still an undergraduate at Oxford. His period of greatest creativity, including the publication of The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) and a succession of brilliant comedies culminating in The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) was cut short by two years' imprisonment as a result of his love affair with Lord Alfred Douglas. Sarony's photograph, taken in New York in January 1882, shows Wilde wearing full aesthetic garb and preparing to proclaim his creed of art and beauty to audiences across North America.

Linked publicationsback to top

• Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 661
• Toksvig, Sandi; Dyer, Richard, Gay Icons, 2009 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 2 July - 18 October 2009), p. 12

Subject/Themeback to top

• Lounging