Oscar Wilde

A Woodburytype portrait of the Irish dramatist Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), whose flamboyant style, witticisms and quotable conversation dazzled London society in the 1880s and early 1890s. A succession of hit plays in the West End brought further fame and fortune but his fall from grace was spectacular when in 1895 he was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ and sentenced to two years’ hard labour. Released in 1897, he spent the last three years of his life in self-imposed exile. He died penniless in Paris on 30 November 1900 and was buried in Père Lachaise cemetery.

Photographed by William and Daniel Downey of London and Newcastle, and published as a Woodburytype as part of the 2nd series of The Cabinet Portrait Gallery in 1891.