COVE

The photos above depict Oscar Wilde at age twenty seven, photographed by Napoleon Sarony in 1882. The original photos were silver prints made from glass plate negatives and have yellowed from their original black and white appearance over time. In relation to the time the photos were taken an unknown source from The Metropolitan Museum writes, "Wilde went to America in 1882 at the invitation of the New York producer Richard D'Oyly Carte to give a series of lectures on the English Renaissance to promote the opening of D'Oyly Carte's production of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta "Patience," in which aestheticism and Wilde himself were brilliantly satirized." The motivation behind Wilde’s rebellious writing is entangled within his personal philosophy; "art for art's sake” (Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, Gale, 1998). As one of the founding members of the literary and artistic movement known as aestheticism, Oscar Wilde was concerned with the avant-garde. Similarly to his 1887 short story, The Canterville Ghost, his purpose in writing was to contradict, satirize, or critique the framework of British Victorian society. According to the scholars at Gale, Oscar Wilde “believed that his subversion of the Victorian moral code was the impulse for his writing. Wilde considered himself a criminal who challenged society by creating scandal” (Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, Gale, 1998). The specific subversion pertains to his homosexuality. Oscar Wilde was a writer who operated outside of the boundaries of British social conventions, which heavily influenced his literary work.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/285691

https://www.oscarwildeinamerica.org/sarony/sarony-photographs-of-oscar-wilde-1882.html