A Conversation with Oscar Wilde

One of my favourite public sculptures, whenever I'm in London there's a good chance I'll walk past and say "Hello Oscar", like greeting an old friend. I don't care if people think I'm a bit mad, I don't want Oscar to feel like he's being ignored. He had nothing to declare except his genius, and I love him for it.

It's very touching to be in front of his kind face even through a sculpture ❤️

This is a provocative sculpture by Maggie Hambling, unveiled in 1998. Wilde is depicted reclining, as if emerging from a stone sarcophagus, with a cigarette in his hand - a deliberate challenge to Victorian restraint and traditional memorials. The pose and facial expressions emphasize his wit, audacity and refusal to "stand tall" in the face of public morality. This is the first public monument to Wilde in London and one of the few that shows the writer not as an icon, but as a living, ironic, inconvenient person for the system.

Very beautiful little monument by Oscar Wilde

Wanted to visit for ages! Beautiful and inspiring ❤️