Oscar Wilde's tomb
| Oscar Wilde's tomb | |
|---|---|
The tomb in July 2009
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| Artist | Jacob Epstein |
| Year | August 1914 |
| Type | Carving |
| Medium | Hopton Wood stone |
| Location | Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France |
| 48°51′43″N 2°23′53″E / 48.861889°N 2.398139°ECoordinates: 48°51′43″N 2°23′53″E / 48.861889°N 2.398139°E | |
The tomb of Oscar Wilde is located in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France. It took nine to ten months to complete by the sculptor Jacob Epstein, with an accompanying plinth by Charles Holden and an inscription carved by Joseph Cribb.
In 1908 Oscar Wilde's literary executor Robert Ross chose Jacob Epstein for the commission of the tomb at a cost of two thousand pounds, which had been anonymously donated for this purpose. Later, in a publication of letters between Ada Leverson and Ross in 1930, Letters to the Sphinx, the anonymous donor was revealed to be Helen Carew, with financial assistance from Sydney Schiff aka novelist Stephen Hudson. This was only Epstein's second commission, his first being the sculpture for the British Medical Association building in The Strand; these had been severely criticised for being too sexualised for public consumption. However, Epstein retained some noteworthy supporters within the Wilde circle such as William Rothenstein.
The choice of Oscar Wilde's monument would create controversy. Wilde's supporters would have liked for the monument to derive in some way from Wilde's works, such as The Young King, by invoking homoerotica with figures of forlorn Greek youths, whereas Wilde's detractors believed he was deserving of no monument at all. One can see the influences of Wilde's works in Epstein's original sketches for the tomb, which feature two young men, heads downcast in an image of grief and sorrow upon an empty stone stele. However, Epstein has said of his sketches of the tomb that he "was dissatisfied and scrapped quite completed work".
It has been suggested that the change in design plans are due to Epstein's new focus on Wilde's poem The Sphinx. However, a number of influences began to play on Epstein around this period, including that of fellow sculptor Eric Gill. The two artists were deeply interested in what they saw as the more primal sexuality of Indian and Egyptian art, as opposed to British art. Pennington refers to this period in the Epstein's work as the Sun Temple period and claims that, having been unable to follow this path with some of his works in Britain, Epstein transferred his new passion onto the Wilde tomb.
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