At the height of dandyism, Oscar Wilde poses for eternity. New York. 1882.

Oscar Wilde (1854.1900)

Photograph in business card format (cdv)

Vintage albumen print mounted on heavy card.

[New York. January 1882.]

Original photograph by Napoléon Sarony.

Size: 6.20 x 9.80 cm.

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One of the most famous portraits of Oscar Wilde.

Invited to present a series of lectures on the theme of Aesthetics and Decorative Arts, Oscar Wilde arrived in the United States on the SS Arizona on January 3, 1882, for a tour scheduled to last four months. To the American customs officer who greeted him in New York, Wilde declared: "I have nothing to declare, except my genius."

Upon his arrival, Oscar Wilde visited the studios of Napoleon Sarony, one of the most fashionable American photographers. Sarony took about twenty photographs of Wilde, in different poses and with different costumes, revealing all the dandyism of the young British author.

In this portrait, Wilde holds a copy of his collection Poems (1881) and is wearing a fur coat which he was very fond of and which his brother had to sell when he was imprisoned: "I wore it all the way to America, it was at all my firsts, it knows me perfectly and I really want to find it again" (Pléiade, pp. 94-95).

The tour was a great success and eventually lasted for a whole year, over the course of one hundred and forty lectures, taking him all the way to Canada.

An extremely rare photograph.