Basil Hallward Quotes

A portrait like this would set you far above all the young men in England, and make the old men quite jealous, if old men are ever capable of any emotion.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Lord Henry’s eyebrows are raised when Basil tells him that he won’t be sending his portrait of Dorian to the Grosvenor or anywhere else for public display. Urging him to do so, he tells Basil that it is "the best thing you have never done" and such a portrait would make him the envy of others throughout England. Basil is seen in the novel as the artist metaphor for Oscar Wilde himself.

There is a fatality about all physical and intellectual distinction, the sort of fatality that seems to dog through history the faltering steps of kings. It is better not to be different from one’s fellows. The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Basil reacts to Lord Henry’s ideas about physical beauty vs intellectual power and telling Basil that he isn’t in the least like Dorian Gray. Basil makes clear that he’s not interested in having the beauty of Dorian, saying that it’s better not to be different. The ugly and stupid know nothing of victory or defeat but live undisturbed lives without worry, he goes on to say.

Your rank and wealth, Harry; my brains, such as they are – my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray’s good looks – we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Basil tells Lord Henry that it is better not to be different than one’s fellows. He warns that Lord Henry, Basil and Dorian will suffer for the gifts the gods have given them – position and wealth, art, and good looks. There is a great deal of foreshadowing here of tragic consequences to come.

I believe that you are really a very good husband, but that you are thoroughly ashamed of your own virtues. You are an extraordinary fellow. You never say a moral thing, and you never do a wrong thing. Your cynicism is simply a pose.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. After Lord Henry describes marriage as a life of mutual deception between the spouses, Basil say that he hates the way Henry talks about his married life. He believes that Henry is essentially a good husband and his cynacism is just a pose. Henry never says a moral thing, but he never does a wrong thing, says Basil. Basil is a decent man who thoroughly believes in the goodness of people.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Basil is speaking to Lord Henry about his portrait of Dorian Gray, a young man he is obsessed with. He claims that the painting says more about the artist than his sitter. So the picture is more a reflection of Basil than it is of Dorian, expressing his homoerotic attraction to Dorian.

The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Most artists cannot wait to show off their work to the public, but not so Basil Hallward with his portrait of Dorian. He believes that his picture of Dorian is more than just a work of art. He feels that in it he has revealed much of his own soul, so for that reason he is not willing to exhibit it in front of strangers. Obsessed and infatuated with the young Dorian, he admits to putting into the picture "some expression of all this curious artistic idolatry." But Basil wishes to keep his feelings hidden from the world’s prying eyes. "My heart shall never be put under their microscope," he says. Basil is widely regarded as a metaphor for Wilde the artist, who also once said: "it is not wise to show one’s heart to the world."

A curious sensation of terror came over me. I knew that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Basil Hallward, Chapter 1. Dorian Gray has a huge influence on Basil Hallward’s entire being. The painter describes his reaction to seeing Dorian for the first time at a party thrown by Lady Brandon. The "terror" he experiences and his sudden fascination and obsession with Dorian is foreshadowing of the dangerous relationship he will develop with the young man, which will end badly for both.

But in some curious way – I wonder will you understand me? – his personality has suggested to me an entirely new manner in art, an entirely new mode of style. I see things differently, I think of them differently. I can now recreate life in a way that was hidden from me before.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Here Basil is describing his first meeting with Dorian Gray and his influence on him as a person and an artist. Dorian apparently brings out the best of Basil’s art skills and Basil is completely besotted with him. This passage was part of a larger extract from the novel read out and used against Wilde in the famous libel trial at London’s Old Bailey by lawyer Edward Carson. In his brutal 1895 cross-examination of the author Sir Edward asked Wilde: "Now I ask you, Mr. Wilde, do you consider that that description of the feeling of one man towards a youth just grown up was a proper or an improper feeling?" To which Wilde replied: "I think it is the most perfect description of what an artist would feel on meeting a beautiful personality that was in some way necessary to his art and life."

Because, without intending it, I have put into it some expression of all this curious artistic idolatry, of which, of course, I have never cared to speak to him.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. While Basil has put all of his "idolatry" of Dorian into his portrait, he has never spoken to Dorian about this. His idolization of his subject suggests that he has more that just an artistic interest in Dorian, but a love interest in him also. This is one of the the homoerotic passages in the novel, which sparked such controversy and opposition to it when published.

An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Basil tells Lord Henry that art for the artist should be about creating beauty, and not inserting "his own life" into his work. Basil has been explaining that he doesn’t wish to exhibit his painting of Dorian because there is too much of himself in it, while Henry has been countering that poets put their passions on display when they publish their poetry.

As a rule, he is charming to me, and we sit in the studio and talk of a thousand things. Now and then, however, he is horribly thoughtless, and seems to take a real delight in giving me pain. Then I feel, Harry, that I have given away my whole soul to some one who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat, a bit of decoration to charm his vanity, an ornament for a summer’s day.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Artist Basil is describing his friend and sitter Dorian to Lord Henry. Neither Henry nor the readers have met Dorian yet. But this passage refers to signs of a vanity and thoughlessness in Dorian, foreshadowing his later cruelty and embrace of evil.

"Dorian Gray is my dearest friend," he said. "He has a simple and a beautiful nature. Your aunt was quite right in what she said of him. Don’t spoil him. Don’t try to influence him. Your influence would be bad. The world is wide, and has many marvelous people in it. Don’t take away from me the one person who gives to my art whatever charm it possesses: my life as an artist depends on him. Mind, Harry, I trust you." He spoke very slowly, and the words seemed wrung out of him almost against his will.
"What nonsense you talk!" said Lord Henry, smiling, and taking Hallward by the arm, he almost led him into the house.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. This passage shows how artist Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton will be the two conflicting characters throughout Wilde’s only novel. Here Basil speaks to Lord Henry before Dorian comes into his home studio. Wary of the bad influence Henry would have on Dorian’s innocent and beautiful nature, Basil asks him not to influence his young friend Dorian. The cynical Henry smiles and gives Basil a non-commital reply, saying that Basil is talking nonsense.

He had known Basil Hallward for months, but the friendship between them had never altered him. Suddenly there had come some one across his life who seemed to have disclosed to him life’s mystery. And, yet, what was there to be afraid of? He was not a schoolboy or a girl. It was absurd to be frightened.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. Dorian says that his months long friendship with Basil had never altered him. But all of a sudden he is feeling the strong influence of Lord Henry, someone who has revealed to him "life’s mystery." Dorian appears on the brink of some transformative change and admits that he is frightened.

With a stifled sob the lad leaped from the couch, and, rushing over to Hallward, tore the knife out of his hand, and flung it to the end of the studio. "Don’t, Basil, don’t!" he cried. "It would be murder!"

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. Dorian runs to stop Basil from cutting up his portrait with a knife, pleading that it would be murder. When Basil reaches for the palette-knife to destroy the painted canvass of Dorian this is foreshadowing of when Dorian will murder Basil by stabbing him with a knife in the final chapter.

"I hope the girl is good, Harry. I don’t want to see Dorian tied to some vile creature, who might degrade his nature and ruin his intellect."
"Oh, she is better than good – she is beautiful," murmured Lord Henry, sipping a glass of vermouth and orange-bitters. "Dorian says she is beautiful, and he is not often wrong about things of that kind. Your portrait of him has quickened his appreciation of the personal appearance of other people. It has had that excellent effect, amongst others."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 6. Basil hopes that the girl Dorian is engaged to be married to is good. However, Henry dismisses the importance of goodness, saying that beauty is far better and she has that. Basil’s portrait has made Dorian appreciate even more the appearance of other people, he tells the artist. Henry’s promotion of the aesthetic philosophy reflects the conflict in the novel between aestheticism and morality. In a letter to St. James’s Gazette responding to a complaint that the novel had no moral, Wilde wrote: "The poor public, hearing, from an authority so high as your own, that this is a wicked book that should be coerced and suppressed by a Tory Government, will, no doubt, rush to it and read it. But, alas! they will find that it is a story with a moral. And the moral is this: All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment."

I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 6. Lord Henry is asked by Basil if he approves of Dorian getting engaged to the actress Sibyl Vane. Basil dismisses the engagement as a "silly infatuation" and believes Henry cannot possibly approve of it because Dorian is marrying beneath him. But Harry doesn’t believe in taking any moral position on anything and neither approves nor disapproves of anything. With trademark shallowness he explains that "If a personality fascinates me, whatever mode of expression that personality selects is absolutely delightful to me."

"To be good is to be in harmony with one’s self," he replied, touching the thin stem of his glass with his pale, fine-pointed fingers. "Discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others. One’s own life – that is the important thing. As for the lives of one’s neighbours, if one wishes to be a prig or a Puritan, one can flaunt one’s moral views about them, but they are not one’s concern. Besides, Individualism has really the higher aim. Modern morality consists in accepting the standard of one’s age. I consider that for any man of culture to accept the standard of his age is a form of the grossest immorality."
"But, surely, if one lives merely for one’s self, Harry, one pays a terrible price for doing so?" suggested the painter.
"Yes, we are overcharged for everything nowadays. I should fancy that the real tragedy of the poor is that they can afford nothing but self-denial. Beautiful sins, like beautiful things, are the privilege of the rich."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 6. Lord Henry makes this response when asked by Basil and Dorian what did he mean by good. Henry preaches the gospel of individualism, dismisses self-denial as something for the poor, rejects modern morality and says that beautiful sins are the privilege of the wealthy. He continues his efforts to weave his corruptive web of influence over Dorian, who just before this criticized Henry’s "poisonous" theories. The very moral Basil suggests that a person will pay a terrible price for living a completely selfish life.

I believe in this girl. Any one you love must be marvellous, and any girl that has the effect you describe must be fine and noble. To spiritualize one’s age – that is something worth doing. If this girl can give a soul to those who have lived without one, if she can create the sense of beauty in people whose lives have been sordid and ugly, if she can strip them of their selfishness and lend them tears for sorrows that are not their own, she is worthy of all your adoration, worthy of the adoration of the world. This marriage is quite right. I did not think so at first, but I admit it now. The gods made Sibyl Vane for you. Without her you are incomplete.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 7. Dorian, after describing his love for Sibyl and her talent as an actress, earns a ringing endorsement from Basil for the love match. Basil is in full agreement with Dorian, saying that a girl who can through her art "give a soul to those who have lived without one" and create beauty in people with ugly lives is worthy of Dorian’s and the world’s affection. Basil is a firm believer in the ability of art to transform people’s lives.

"Last night she was a great artist. This evening she is merely a commonplace mediocre actress."
"Don’t talk like that about any one you love, Dorian. Love is a more wonderful thing than Art."
"They are both simply forms of imitation, remarked Lord Henry."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 7. Dorian is highly critical of Sibyl’s performance as Juliet. He loves the "art" that Sibyl can create and the characters she can give life to, but not Sibyl the person. So when her art fails her and she becomes mere woman, Dorian sees no worth in her. When Basil berates Dorian, holding up love as more wonderful than art, Lord Henry dismisses both as unreal and just forms of imitation.

"Dorian, this is horrible! Something has changed you completely. You look exactly the same wonderful boy who, day after day, used to come down to my studio to sit for his picture. But you were simple, natural, and affectionate then. You were the most unspoiled creature in the whole world. Now, I don’t know what has come over you. You talk as if you had no heart, no pity in you. It is all Harry’s influence. I see that."
The lad flushed up and, going to the window, looked out for a few moments on the green, flickering, sun-lashed garden. "I owe a great deal to Harry, Basil," he said at last, "more than I owe to you. You only taught me to be vain."
"Well, I am punished for that, Dorian – or shall be some day."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 9. Basil notices that Dorian has changed from the simple and unspoiled young man who used to come to sit in his studio for his picture. He blames Dorian’s transition to someone who speaks without heart or pity on the bad influence of Lord Henry. Dorian replies that Basil has taught him to be vain. To which Basil ominously says that he will be punished for that some day. This foreshadows that Dorian will later kill his friend when a horrified Basil sees in the portrait the depravity of soul that has overtaken the once innocent and beautiful Dorian.

To become the spectator of one’s own life, as Harry says, is to escape the suffering of life. I know you are surprised at my talking to you like this. You have not realized how I have developed. I was a schoolboy when you knew me. I am a man now. I have new passions, new thoughts, new ideas. I am different, but you must not like me less. I am changed, but you must always be my friend. Of course, I am very fond of Harry. But I know that you are better than he is. You are not stronger – you are too much afraid of life – but you are better. And how happy we used to be together! Don’t leave me, Basil, and don’t quarrel with me. I am what I am. There is nothing more to be said.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 9. Dorian wishes to be the spectator of his own life and review his experiences and impressions like you assess a work of art. He admits to Basil that he is a changed man. But is it for the better? We think not. He speaks of indulging his "new passions, new thoughts, new ideas" brought about under the influence of self-proclaimed hedonist and unremitting pleasure seeker Lord Henry. In the new Dorian there are few signs of guilt or self-awareness or a conscience at work. He will be a spectator of his own sins as he watches them manifest themselves in the changing face of Basil’s portrait of him. Appealing to Basil to always remain his friend, he compares him with Lord Henry and tells him that he is too afraid of life. This is rather ironic, as Dorian will kill his friend Basil with a knife of Chapter 20.
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