Louvre Online

The Louvre has recently digitized 482,000 works of art, but, of course, there’s only one Oscar Wilde.

Here he is in that sole image from the Louvre collection, in a rarely seen caricature by the Italian and French poster art designer and painter, Leonetto Cappiello (1875–1942).

Cappiello had been a caricaturist for some time before moving to Paris in 1898, where his works were published in the French humorous journal Le Rire (“laughter”) for the first time. Given this timing and Wilde’s appearance in the drawing, it is no doubt during this period that Cappiello chose Wilde for one of his Paris sketches. The above title translates to: Caricature sketch of a man’s head, wearing a boating hat.

The work is not currently on display but it has appeared in previous exhibitions in 1981 and 2016.

Links

Louvre Online: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/

Cappiello cartoon of Oscar Wilde: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl020144210

Le rire: journal humoristique: https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/rire

Credit

CAPPIELLO Leonetto, Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts graphiques, RF 37662, Recto – https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl020144210 – https://collections.louvre.fr/CGU

Collection: Département des Arts graphiques. Cabinet des dessins. Fonds des dessins et miniatures, collection du musée d’Orsay.

* Image reused under Louvre Terms ARTICLE 4: Intellectual property – Re-use of content: 4.1.1 Educational purposes of a public domain image with permalink given.

Exhibition history

Caricatures et dessins satiriques dans les collections du Musée d’Orsay:
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France – 24 mars – 29 juin 2016

Cappiello 1875-1942 : caricatures, affiches, peintures et projets décoratifs:
Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, France – 03 avril – 29 juin 1981 Organisée par : RMNGP (Paris, France), Musée de l’Affiche (Paris, France)

John Cooper, 2023