9 Masterpiece Sandwiches
1. Christo
2. Duchamp
3. Damien Hirst
4. Jasper Johns
5. Klimt
6. Mondrian
7. Pollock
8. O’Keefe
9. RothkoThanks for this, buzzfeed.
Portrait of Oscar Wilde, 1895. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Large image: HERE
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Toulouse-Lautrec had befriended Wilde in Paris and had drawn him several times. He was in London on the night before Wilde’s trial for gross indecency in May 1895, and asked to make another portrait.
They met, but Wilde, who knew he was facing ruin but had refused the pleas of friends and family to flee to the continent, was too nervous to sit. Toulouse-Lautrec went back to his hotel room and drew from memory the haggard anxiety and premature ageing of a man still only 41.
He added the background sketch of the houses of parliament to locate the portrait in London, but it was a prophetic touch: in the trial Wilde was asked about the location of a male brothel in Westminster. It was, he told the court, near the House of Commons. mr-oscar-wilde.de
I kind of really like how Toulouse-Lautrec made Wilde look like so effeminate, albeit in an almost terrifying way.
(via arthistoryx)
