Homage to the great OSCAR WILDE ( 10/16/1854-11/30/1900 )
OSCAR WILDE (October 16, 1854 -November 30, 1900)
101 views of OSCAR WILDE's TOMB at PERE LACHAISE Cemetery in Paris.
the story of the statue is a wild one....for it has folklore on its own...the 'winged angel' represents oscar wilde with it's enormous erect 'man part'. At the turn of the 1900's this scandalized paris.
only recently, the late 1980's onward, copious women have kissed his grave leaving their lipstick marks. it seems more likely that OSCAR would appreciate guys pressing their lips to his grave. so when ADDA DADA first visited his grave back in the 1980's, he placed a nice smack on OSCAR's grave...sans lipstick, though, for ADDA never could find the right color...
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OSCAR WILDE passed away on November 30, 1900, in L'HOTEL on RUE BEAUX ARTS in ROOM 16.
The room still has the original furnishings including OSCARS death bed. One night is now only 600 euros ($900)! Don't think it is a little hovel of a room. It has a balcony; receiving room, and THE bedroom, which, yes, still has the original wallpaper!
"EITHER THAT WALLPAPER GOES OR I DO" was OSCARS last words on November 30, 1900.
-------------------------
OSCAR WILDE
Born October 16, 1854 DUBLIN
Died November 30, 1900 PARIS
Oscar's body had to wait 9 years in Bagneaux cemetery while the tomb was being prepared and various protests were held. WILDE's remains were finally transferred to PERE LACHAISE on july 19, 1909. (The doctors had advised that OSCAR be buried in quicklime to reduce the body to bone before the transfer. Instead, the substance preserved him, shocking the gravediggers, for his hair and beard had even grown longer.)
it took artist JACOB EPSTEIN three years to sculpt his monument, which represents OSCAR WILDE as a 'winged messenger'. It is done in the egyptian art deco style. When EPSTEIN arrived to put the finishing touches on the statue, he found it shrouded and guarded by police for the cemetery conservator had found it 'indecent' and they wanted it banned & removed !
the statue had an erect penis !
officials refused to bow to public intellectual pressure until an acceptable alteration was made-so a plaque of a fig leaf was put over the 'privates' making them private.
the tomb was FINALLY unveiled in 1914, but by 1922 the erect penis had hacked away! The fig leaf as well as a substantial portion of the stone penis lay beneath.
(rumor has it that the conservator, after finding the parts at the monument's base, was supposed to have used them as paperweight)
OSCAR WILDE's poem , THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL is engraved on the back of the tomb:
and alien tears will fill for him
pity's long broken urn
for his mourners will be outcast men
and outcasts always mourn.
Homage to the great OSCAR WILDE ( 10/16/1854-11/30/1900 )
OSCAR WILDE (October 16, 1854 -November 30, 1900)
101 views of OSCAR WILDE's TOMB at PERE LACHAISE Cemetery in Paris.
the story of the statue is a wild one....for it has folklore on its own...the 'winged angel' represents oscar wilde with it's enormous erect 'man part'. At the turn of the 1900's this scandalized paris.
only recently, the late 1980's onward, copious women have kissed his grave leaving their lipstick marks. it seems more likely that OSCAR would appreciate guys pressing their lips to his grave. so when ADDA DADA first visited his grave back in the 1980's, he placed a nice smack on OSCAR's grave...sans lipstick, though, for ADDA never could find the right color...
------------------
OSCAR WILDE passed away on November 30, 1900, in L'HOTEL on RUE BEAUX ARTS in ROOM 16.
The room still has the original furnishings including OSCARS death bed. One night is now only 600 euros ($900)! Don't think it is a little hovel of a room. It has a balcony; receiving room, and THE bedroom, which, yes, still has the original wallpaper!
"EITHER THAT WALLPAPER GOES OR I DO" was OSCARS last words on November 30, 1900.
-------------------------
OSCAR WILDE
Born October 16, 1854 DUBLIN
Died November 30, 1900 PARIS
Oscar's body had to wait 9 years in Bagneaux cemetery while the tomb was being prepared and various protests were held. WILDE's remains were finally transferred to PERE LACHAISE on july 19, 1909. (The doctors had advised that OSCAR be buried in quicklime to reduce the body to bone before the transfer. Instead, the substance preserved him, shocking the gravediggers, for his hair and beard had even grown longer.)
it took artist JACOB EPSTEIN three years to sculpt his monument, which represents OSCAR WILDE as a 'winged messenger'. It is done in the egyptian art deco style. When EPSTEIN arrived to put the finishing touches on the statue, he found it shrouded and guarded by police for the cemetery conservator had found it 'indecent' and they wanted it banned & removed !
the statue had an erect penis !
officials refused to bow to public intellectual pressure until an acceptable alteration was made-so a plaque of a fig leaf was put over the 'privates' making them private.
the tomb was FINALLY unveiled in 1914, but by 1922 the erect penis had hacked away! The fig leaf as well as a substantial portion of the stone penis lay beneath.
(rumor has it that the conservator, after finding the parts at the monument's base, was supposed to have used them as paperweight)
OSCAR WILDE's poem , THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL is engraved on the back of the tomb:
and alien tears will fill for him
pity's long broken urn
for his mourners will be outcast men
and outcasts always mourn.