In this timeline, this is the first cartoon/caricature that specifically shows Oscar Wilde. In this installment of "Punch's Fancy Portraits," Oscar Wilde is turned into a sunflower, a symbol of the Aestheticism movement. The petals of the sunflower circle his head, and his body becomes a stem, almost like the frills that people of the 1600s in England wore. A quote from the Lays of Christy Minstrelsy appears underneath the title of the drawing, "O.W.," reading "O, I feel just as happy as a bright Sunflower!" The Lays of Christy Minstrelsy was a minstrel group, and its mention in the quote here relates Aestheticism to the extremely exaggerated and overdramatic performances of minstrel shows. Underneath everything, a four line poem reads "Æsthetes of Æsthetes! / What's in a name? / The poet is WILDE, / but his poetry's tame." Through this poem, the sunflower that is Wilde becomes tame, making the sunflower a more derogatory symbol for Aestheticism than anything positive; the public views Aestheticism as schmaltzy.

Source:

Sambourne, Edward Linley. "Punch's Funny Portraits.---No. 37." Punch, 25 Jun. 1881, https://magazine.punch.co.uk/image/I0000UJ5WxmvnxB4.