AQS on an off-white 6.5 x 7.5 sheet, in full: "Satire is the homage which mediocrity pays to genius, Oscar Wilde, New York, May 7th '82." In fine condition, with intersecting folds, and light show-through from old mounting remnants on the back.
Wilde was in New York at the time on the advice of impresario and agent Richard D'Oyly Carte, who wanted to use a year-long tour of the United States and Canada to promote the operetta Patience by Gilbert and Sullivan, which Carte had produced. The operetta was in fact itself a satire of Wilde, or at least of the philosophy of aestheticism Wilde was touring North America to promote.
In addition to this official satire, his words may have also been inspired by the grassroots variety experienced in the somewhat tumultuous reception to his lectures. Four months previously Wilde had lectured at Harvard, where he drew a full house. As reported in the Paterson Weekly Press: 'The audience was not composed of what is known as Boston’s best people.…The front two rows of seats on the floor were occupied by about sixty Harvard students, who were arrayed in the aesthetic costume, consisting of dress coats, knee-breeches and extravagant green neckties. They all wore lilies in their coats and carried large sunflowers.' They aggressively applauded anything Wilde said, 'evidently with the intention of ‘guying’ the lecturer' (Feb. 2, 1882).
Wilde was one of the greatest writers to come out of Ireland: a poet, and playwright, and one of the most famous personalities of his age. Though his reception in New England was mixed (and the compliment of satire abounded), his lecture series did plant the seed of aestheticism in traditionally puritanical New England, and would later influence American art movements, such as the Arts and Crafts movement.
Provenance: Walter P. Chrysler Jr. Collection (1909-1988). Gifted to the Chrysler Museum; Chrysler Museum of Art Collection (Inv. 77.1204 - sold for the benefit of museum acquisitions).
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