Harper's Bazar: "Wilde on US. Something to 'Live Up' To in America."

This cartoon of Wilde, also made by Thomas Nast, shows him standing in front of work boots with sunflowers and lilies sprouting from them, as per usual. He points to work boots and a straw hat lettered "The Picturesque Miners in the Rocky Mountains." Coming back to the monetary greed accusations, Wilde's pockets are stuffed with bags of money. The reason for the boot imagery is due to the American interpretation of Wilde's American tour: the idea was that he would "civilize" the rugged, rural population of the U.S., giving them "something to live up to": Aestheticism. Based on the aforementioned interpretations of sunflowers and (calla) lilies, it could be that Wilde wants an American audience to evaluate the beauty of their desires and of nature, and how all desires are natural because they come from the human being (early seeds of hedonistic thinking).

 

Source:

Nast, Thomas. "Wilde on U.S. Something to 'Live Up' to in America." Harper's Bazar, 10 Jun. 1882, p. 316, https://www.oscarwildeinamerica.org/features/something-to-live-up-to.html.

Associated Place(s)

Event date:

10 Jun 1882