Dorian Gray Art Quotes

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Preface. Wilde’s novel when first published in 1890 was criticized as scandalous and immoral. The review in London’s Daily Chronicle blasted it as "a poisonous book, the atmosphere of which is heavy with the mephitic odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction." In the preface, which was added to a revised edition of the novel in 1891, Wilde argued that books were neither moral nor immoral, but well or badly written. In other words, art does not instruct and has no effect, other than aesthetic, on people or society.

The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass. The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Preface. Here Wilde says that 19th century people do not like realistic art, because it shows them uncomfortable truths about themselves. And they don’t like romantic art because it shows them visions of what humanity might be, and they are unable to relate to it.

All art is quite useless.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Preface. This quote means that art doesn’t express anything but itself. It has no function beyond being viewed and enjoyed. In 1890, a university student named Bernulf Clegg wrote Wilde asking him to expand on this line in the preface. Wilde replied: "Art is useless because its aim is simply to create a mood. It is not meant to instruct, or to influence action in any way. It is superbly sterile, and the note of its pleasure is sterility."

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.

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.

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.

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.

The painter bit his lip and walked over, cup in hand, to the picture. "I shall stay with the real Dorian," he said, sadly.
"Is it the real Dorian?" cried the original of the portrait, strolling across to him. "Am I really like that?"
"Yes; you are just like that."
"How wonderful, Basil!"
"At least you are like it in appearance. But it will never alter," sighed Hallward. "That is something."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. Basil calls his portrait of Dorian the "real" Dorian. And that exactly what it turns out to be. Dorian continues to keep the appearance of youth while the portrait changes to reflect his inner soul – in keeping with his Faustian deal to trade his soul for eternal youth.

Yes; he would try to be to Dorian Gray what, without knowing it, the lad was to the painter who had fashioned the wonderful portrait. He would seek to dominate him – had already, indeed, half done so. He would make that wonderful spirit his own. There was something fascinating in this son of Love and Death.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 3. Lord Henry has learned of the tragic fate of Dorian’s parents – his beautiful mother eloped with a penniless man who was lured into a duel and killed, his mother dying a year later. With Dorian’s lack of family, Henry decides to step in and mold and shape him into someone of his making, just like Basil turned Dorian’s physical beauty into a work of art.

Ordinary women never appeal to one’s imagination. They are limited to their century. No glamour ever transfigures them. One knows their minds as easily as one knows their bonnets.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Dorian Gray says that he has seen Sibyl Vane performing "in every age and every costume." While he has confessed love for Sibyl after seeing her on stage as Juliet he is clearly not in love with Sibyl the person. For she is not a real person to him, but a piece of art for him to admire. Ordinary women have no appeal to him, Dorian confesses. He goes on to say: "One can always find them. There is no mystery in any of them. They ride in the Park in the morning and chatter at tea-parties in the afternoon. They have their stereotyped smile, and their fashionable manner. They are quite obvious. But an actress! How different an actress is!" Notice how Dorian is starting to speak like the cynical Lord Henry, like in the quote above, reflecting Henry’s growing influence on the young man.

You can dine with me to-night, Dorian, can’t you?"
He shook his head. "To-night she is Imogen," he answered, "and to-morrow night she will be Juliet.
"When is she Sibyl Vane?"
"Never."
"I congratulate you."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. The theme of appearances is dealt with here as Dorian tells Lord Henry of the different stage roles Sibyl plays. Asked when is she Sibyl, Dorian replies never – he is in love with her art and not Sibyl the person. The shallow Henry, a man who values only the appearance of things, congratulates Dorian.

You, who know all the secrets of life, tell me how to charm Sibyl Vane to love me! I want to make Romeo jealous, I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter, and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir their dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain. My God, Harry, how I worship her!

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Dorian Gray really has it bad for Sibyl. He sounds as if he really loves her. But he is attracted to her as an actress on a stage and is more infatuated with her art and how she appears in her stage roles that he is with her person.

The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists simply exist in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes are, the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realise.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Lord Henry shares his views on artists with Dorian. He believes good artists make for dull people because they give too much of themselves to their art. Bad artists on the other hand are delightful people, they live the poetry they cannot write.

Mrs. Vane fixed her eyes on him, and intensified the smile. She mentally elevated her son to the dignity of an audience. She felt sure that the tableau was interesting.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chaper 5. Mrs. Vane seems to view life as a piece of theater. When James enters the room, where Sibyl has been excitedly telling her mother about her "Prince Charming" Dorian, her theatrical instincts kick in. Mrs. Vane imagines the moment as a "tableau" and she mentally sees her son as the audience. Theater and art are important to the Vane family and to Mrs. Vane appearances really do matter.

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.

Yet she was curiously listless. She showed no sign of joy when her eyes rested on Romeo. The few words she had to speak…with the brief dialogue that follows, were spoken in a thoroughly artificial manner. The voice was exquisite, but from that point of view of tone it was absolutely false.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 7. Sibyl plays Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, to which Dorian has invited Henry and Basil. Dorian observes how poorly she performs her art, her performance is artificial and listless. Sibyl’s depiction of the tragic heroine in the classic tragedy about two star-crossed lovers is foreshadowing of the disaster that will strike her own love relationship with Dorian.
    • 1
    • 2
Close