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(Sammells 57)

89^ Sammells refers to Cohen, Philip K. The Moral Vision of Oscar Wilde. Associated Universities Press, New Jersey, 1978, pp.108 and 118. (Sammells 57) “Cohen argues that the novel puts the theories of Intentions to the test: ‘Dorian Gray provides the crucible of experience into which these theories must pass. There they prove to be dross not gold.’ … For Cohen, then, the portrait is a supernatural register of the evils of a life of untrammeled individualismwhich renders ‘unwavering judgements against Dorian’. ”(77)

90^ Also Belford mentions this portrait: “Ricketts made Wilde a gift of the portrait, which dissappeared from recorded history after it was knocked down for a guinea at the bankrupcy sale of his possessions in April 1895.” (Belford 162)

91^ Wilde studied at Oxford and it is what also Basil and Lord Henry did. (Gillespie 6)

92^ Wilde smoked opium tainted cigarettes as did Lord Henry (Gillespie 6), Gillespie finds also another similarity of Wilde and the character of Lord Henry. When Wilde describes the library in the Lord Henry’s house in Mayfair. (Wilde 40) Gillespie comments:“Lord Henry’s library bears a striking resemblance in several details to Wilde’s library in his Tite Street, Chelsea, home.” (Gillespie 40) According Frankel “A number of Wilde’s friends, notably Frank Harris and Robert Ross, publicly maintained that Wilde, consciosly or not, also put a great deal of himself into Lord Henry.” (Frankel 68)

93^ Sammells quotes Hart-Davis, Ruppert, editor. The Letters of Oscar Wilde. London: Hart-Davis, New York Harcourt. pp.352 - Wilde’s Letter to Ralph Payne from 12 February 1894 (Sammells 56). Also quoted by Gillespie 394.

Sammells (quoting from Currie, Mark. Postmodern narrative theory. London: Macmillian, 1998, pp. 17) adds that "Wilde‘s comments on the process of self-styling (by which, as Lord Henry, Basil and Dorian, he becomes simultaneously Dandy, Dowdy and Debauchee), deconstruct essentialist notions of identity, substituing instead the idea that, as Currie puts it, 'identify is not within us because it exist only as a narrative.' By this Currie means that we learn to 'self-narrate' from the outside (rather than discover ourselves as the kernel in te nut); though other stories we learn to tell the story of ourselves. What Wilde presents us with then, is narrative of radical indeterminacy, which attempts to short-circuit readings which are exclusively moralistic and those which, conversely, ignore the importance of morality to the complexity of its aesthetic design." (56)

94^ This is mentioned also by Gillespie who adds a note that it was “Miss Frances Richards, a pupil of Carolus Durand.” (Gillespie 368)

95^ Ellmann does not say were it is mentioned by Ernest Dowson. (Ellmann 312-3)

Regarding his comment to the homosexual taste of Basil Hallward they are even more distinct in the typescript published in 2011.

96^ Charles Ricketts (1866 – 1931) designed and illustrated majority of Wilde’s books, one also with Charles Shannon (1863 – 1937), who also designed bindings of plays (Salome was illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley). (Belford 158) According Belford Rickett and Charles Shannon met while studying and afterwards lived together 50 years in Regens house off the King’s Road in Chelsea. Wilde was visiting them and admired their old house and Japanese prints. ”Wilde noticed what the couple called pretty things. Greek lecythi, Tanagra Statuettes, Venetian glass, drawing by Hokussi, Persian miniatures.“ (Belford 159)

Later Rickett and Shannon moved from the studio in Vale to Beaufort Street Chelsea. (Pearson 280-2)

According Ellmann Wilde met Ricketts first time in 1889 (as already mentioned in the chapter about Mr.W.H.) so if there was an influence it was instant. (Ellmann 298)

97^ Frankel uses as a source Dakers, Carolyn. The Holland Park Circle: Artists and Victorian Society. New Haven, CT: Yale Uiversity Press, 1999. pp. 24. Frankel adds also the following: “Studio-homes incorporating gardens, such as those built in Holland Park for the artists Marcus Stone, Luke Fildes, Val Prinspes, and Hamo Thorneycroft, were in the forefront of contemporary architecture.” (Frankel 67)

98^ Frankel quotes from Powell, Kerry, “Who was Basil Hallward?”. English Language Notes, 24. 1986. pp. 84-91. Franks adds that “[Holl] must, in the course of his painting , have discovered some dreadful secret in those apparently blameless breasts, such ‘damnable’ faces’ have his sitters shown, “ remarks the critic Harry Quilter in a book that Wilde reviewed in 1886 and which Powell quotes at some length. According to Quilter, Holl was also a painter who “threw, to some extent, the cloak of his own personality over all his sitters,” thereby lending his portraits another of the features that distinguishes Hallward’s work in The Picture of Dorian Gray.” (Frankel 70)

99^ Frankel (using a source Mc-Kenna, Neil. Secret Life of Oscar Wilde. New York: Basic Books, 2005, pp.11.) mentions that Lord Ronald Sutherland-Gower (1845-1916) “was a sculptor, an art connoisseur, a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, and the vice president of the Kyrle Society for the Diffusion of Beauty among the People, as well as “a notorious sodomite, with a penchant for ‘rough trade’” (Frankel 68)

100^ Frankel qoutes from Wilde (Frankel 28)

101^ Described more above in the chapter ‘Whistler’s Ten O’Clock lecture’.

102^ Sammells quotes from Wilde 5

103^ Sammells interpretation of Art as a bogus is at least questionable. Sammells anyway repeats his theory once again few pages furhter: "In Derridean deconstruction the first act is an inversion whereby the 'lower' term is elevated above the 'higher' . We have already seen this in “The Decay of Lying”where the bogus is elevated above the real. However, deconstruction needs to go further - to dissolve the binary opposition itself, not simply invert it (otherwise one power-structure is simply replaced by another). Wilde does this in his collapsing of the distinction between the natural and the cultural in Dorian Gray." (Sammells 40-1)

104^ Sammells quotes from Wilde “The Decay of Lying” 6. Wilde in “The Decay of Lying”continues further and explains deeper: “Holbein’s drawing of the men and women of his time impress us with a sense of their absolute reality. But it is simply because Holbein compelled life to accept his conditions, to restrain itself within his limitations, to reproduce his type, and to appear as he wished it to appear. It is style that make us to believe in a thing - nothing but style. Most of our modern portrait painters are doomed to absolute oblivion. They never paint what they see. They paint what the public sees and the public never sees anything.” (Wilde “The Decay of Lying” 47)

105^ There is even more added by Wilde in “The Decay of Lying”: “Life imitates Art far more, than the Art imitates Life. This results not merely from Life imitative instinct, but from the fact, that self-conscious aim of Life is to find expression, and that Art offers it certain beautiful forms through which it may realise that energy … It follows, as a corollary from this, that external Nature also imitates Art.“ (Wilde “The Decay of Lying” 52- 3)

Wilde’s “The Decay of Lying” which publication in 1889 preceded Dorian Gray, is the discussion of Cyril and Vivian. He himself call it via Vivian ‘A Protest’ (4)

What Wilde claims seems to be absurd but if ‘Art’ is replaced by ‘Creation’ and also if we try to carefully listen what he wants to say, it is becoming more real and understandable.

Cyril says: “But you don’t mean to say that you seriously belive that Life imitates Art, that Life in fact is the mirror, and Art the reality?“ (30-1) This is replied by Vivian: “Certainly I do. Paradox though it may seem and paradoxes are always dangerous things – it is none the less true that life imitate art far more than Art imitates life. We have all seen in our own day in England how a certain curious and fascinating type of beauty, ivented and emphasized by two imaginative painters, has so influenced Life that whenever one goes to a private view or to an artistic salon, one sees, here the mystic eyes of Rossetti’s dream, the long ivory throat, the strange square cut jaw the loosened shadowy hair, that he so ardently loved, there the sweet maidenhoodof ‘The Golden Stair, the blossom-like mouth and weary loveliness of the ‘Laus Amoris’, the passion pale face of Andromeda, the thin hands and lithe beauty of the Vivan in ‘Merlin’s Dream.’ And it has always been so. A great artist invent a type, and Life tries to copy it, to reproduce it in a popular form, like an enterprising publisher. Neither Holbein nor VanDyck found in England what they have given to us.” ” (30-1)

106^ „Japanese effect” term was used by Wilde already in “The Decay of Lying”46 where he claims that to see an Japanese effect there is no need to go to Tokio, it is enough to go to the park or Piccadilly on the afternoon and “if you cannot see an absolutely Japanese effect there, you will not see it anywhere.”(Wilde “The Decay of Lying” 46)

107^ Frankel quotes from Wilde 174. As Frankel further describes there were in this time “the Whitechapel or ‘Jack the Ripper’ Murders of 1888 … London has been called “The City of Disappearances.” and it was not uncommon in Wilde’s day for respectable people to go missing in London or for their corpses to materialize months later, washed up on the River Thames.” (Frankel 70)

108^ This similarity is also mentioned by Frankel: “The Picture of Dorian Gray belongs to a class of contemporary full-length portraiture dominated by Whistler, Sargent, and Tissot.” (Frankel 69) He also mentions Wilde’s full-length portrait by Harper Pennington (69)

109^ “It was a full-length portrait of a young man in late sixteenth century costume, standing by a table, with his right hand resting on an open book. He seemed about seventeen years of age, and was quite extraordinary personal beauty, though evidently somehow effeminate.“ (Wilde The Portrait of Mr.W.H. 6-8)

110^ “William Agnew (1825-1910), became the most influential art dealer of his time, paying large sums of money for the works of established British artists like William Holman Hunt and Edward Burne-Jones, and encouraging younger artists such as Fred Walker to establish their careers. Agnew also helped to form the collections of important figures such as Sir Charles Tennant and E. C. Guinness, being one of the first to recognise the growing taste in the 1870s for old master works and for the art of the eighteenth century, works that were informing JW's art of the period.“ (GUW - Wiliam Agnew. https://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/correspondence/biog/display/?bid=Agne_W )

111^ Gilespie comments it: “ “unspotted from the world” is a direct quote from the New Testament, James 1.27, in the King James version of the Bible, the form with which Wilde would have been most familiar. This idealized male image exactly corresponds to the forged painting in “The Picture of Mr W.H.” and to the appearance of many of Wilde’s friends and intimates, most notably R.H.Sherard, a friend and future biographer; John Gray, the poet; and a Lord Alfred Douglas. The last correspondence reflects perhaps Wilde’s conception of male beaty rather than a specific model since he did not meet Lord Alfred until two months after the novel-lenght version of The Picture of Dorian Gray appeared in print.” (Gillespie 17) It is quote improtant note, because it was happening that people thought that the model for the Dorian Gray was Lord Alfred Douglas. Lord Douglas himself mentions it in his book about Oscar Wilde that it is nonsense, because they met firstly after the last version of Dorian Gray was published.

112^

113^ Gillespie comment is only fitting here: “ The convolvus, or binweed, is native to Mediterranean limestone hills, and its presence in Basil’s garden underscores the Edenic overtones of the scene.” (Gillespie 23)

114^ Sammels quotes from Arata, Stephen. Fictions of Loss in the Victorian Fin de Siecle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1996. p. 60. (Sammels 58)

115^ Sammels quotes from Wilde (Sammels 58)

116^ According Ellmann “Dorian offers a Faustian pact (with no visible Devil)” (Ellmann 315) Also Frankel mentions that „Dorian does not realize it , but he has entered a Faustian pact (with Lord Henry) ...in expressing his willingness to ‘give everything’ for eternal youth (Frankel)

117^ As Frankel quotes from Whistler on Art, pp. 48 “ ‘My frames I have designed as carefully as my pictures - and thus they form as important part as any of the rest of the work – carrying on the particular on the particular harmony throughout.’ “ (Frankel 126)

118^ Whistler’s painting White girl is depicting Joanna Hiffernan who was Whistler’s model and lover for six years from 1860. Later she was also model of Gustave Courbet. (Symphony in White)

119^ According Sammells "Sybil ... is an object of desire because of her 'lack' of a 'real', stable, graspable identity.“ (Sammells 60) According Ellmann Dorian’s “attachment to Sibyl Vane is an experiment in the aesthetic laboratory.” and “Her fatal weakness in his eyes is that she values life above art.” (Ellmann 315)

120^ As Belford comments“The novelist and memorist Edmont de Goncourt,… met Oscar Wilde several times. Goncourt’s novel La Faustin examines the conflict between life and art through title character, an actress who need love to perform. Excited by this theme Wilde made up a sketch about an actress with the opposite problem: love diverts her talent. This became a story of Sibyl Vane in Dorian Gray.” (Belford 118)

121^ Gillespie comments: “Wilde admired Tanagra statuettes on his early trip to Greece and kept one in the library of his Tite Street house. They were moulded out of red clay.” (Gillespie 65)

122^ Anderson also mentions that “James’s contribution to Parisian galleries such as those of Durand Ruel and Georges Petit were interpreted by a press as an affiliation with the impressionist movement.“ (Anderson 276) Anderson continues “Between the years 1884 and 1888, during his membership and subsequent presidency of the Royal Society of British Artists, James exhibited little on the continent. He did, however, occasionally submit work, usually portraits, to the annual Paris Salon, and his reputation on the continent was still potent. After the debacle of the RBA, James set his sights again on Europe. Over a year before, on 14 March 1887, he had received an invitation to exhibit from the committee of the Exposition Internationale Annuelle held at the Galerie Georges Petit on the Rue Seze. Obviously delighted, James immediately agreed to send a considerable body of work - some fifty small oils, watercolours, pastels and etchings. It was his first appearance at Petit for nearly four years and his work was well received by critics and artists alike.” (Anderson 285) Anderson thinks it was Monet who initiated that Whistler was invited to the show. (285)

123^ Frankel quotes from Hart-Davis, Ruppert and Holland, Merlin, editors. The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde. New York: Henry Holt, 2000, pp.436. (Frankel 24) Wilde says that his story “reacts against the crude brutality of plain realism.” (Gillespie 371)

124^ Wilde seems to be influenced by Plato’s theory of shadows in the cave. What we see are only shadows or real things.

125^ The Yellow book is often understood as A Rebours, but I did not find a clear eveidence for such a claim.

126^ As already mentioned above In Lippincott’s edition is: ”It was the 7^th of October, the eve of his own thirty-second birthday” (Wilde Lippincott’s 275) Explained above by Ellmann. One of possible interpretations is that Wilde projected himself to Dorian’s character.

127^ Dorian is not pointing to the murder, he is pointing to the soul hidden in the portrait.

128^ Gillespie comments here that cassone is “A large, ornamented chest of the Italian Renaissance.” In The Portrait of Mr.W.H. there is also mentioned the chest - Elizabethan.

129^ Possible connection to the dusty place where was found the (forged) evidence of Mr.W.H. (Wilde The Portrait of Mr.W.H. 30-34)

130^ Flower in the coat was one of Wilde’s characteristics.

131^ Country house.

132^ Gillespie, using as a source Pearson, Hesketh, Oscar Wilde. New York: Harper. 1946. pp. 318-19., comments that ”The model for Alan Campbell was identified by Hesketh Pearson ... as Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell, whom, over lunch at the Café Royal, Wilde once asked to describe how to get rid of a body.“ (Gillespie 140)

Pearson describes it in The Life of Oscar Wilde in the third edition different way - as an encounter in 1899. When Mitchel sees Willde he tells him that he was introduced to him long time ago by Ion Thymwe. Wilde recalls: “ “Of course I remember you. We talked and talked and I asked you how to get rid of the body. I used you in Dorian Gray but I don’t think you would be easy to blackmail”. They talked for more than two hours, on crimes and punishments, on the management of Gaols in England, on poems and poets, and on science.” (Pearson 71) Frankel quotes the same text but from Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell’s book My Fill of Days. London: Faber& Faber, 1937. (Frankel 233)

The discussion might have helped Wilde to describe the dismissal of Hallward’s body. But it is not clear who was the model for the Campbell’s quite mysterious character with no clear identity. In Lippincott’s version is described that “They had been great friends once, five years before, almost inseparable indeed. Then the intimacy had come suddenly to an end. When they met in society now, it was only Dorian Gray who smiled: Alan Campbell never did.” Further is described when they first met, that their intimacy lasted eighteen months. Campbell became absorbed in biology. (Wilde Lippincott’s 288-9)

133^ Gillespie quotes from Wilde 145 (Gillespie “Picturing Dorian Gray” 395-6)

134^ Ellmann 274

135^ Ellmann 278 refers to J. J .Renaud, ‘Oscar Wilde tel que je l’ai “entendu.” Carrefour, 8 Oct 1904.

136^ Frankel, Nicholas, editor. The Picture of Dorian Gray. An annotated, uncensored edition. Oscar Wilde.

137^ As already mentioned in the Introductory note Lawler in the essay “Oscar Wilde’s First Manuscript of The Picture Of Dorian Gray” mentions holograph manuscript at the Pierpont Morgan Library which must be according him based on some older orginal draft but this - if survived till now - must be privately owned. (Lawler 431, 438-9) Frankel also admits possibility of handwritten draft.

138^ Anderson quotes from Ellmann 261. (Anderson 314-5)

139^ As already mentioned Wilde seems to be influenced by Plato’s theory of shadows in the cave. As expressed through the character of Lord Henry who claims that things in Basil's new manner got “a kind of symbolical value, as they were themselves patterns of some other an more perfect form whose shadow they made real.” (Wilde 34-35)

140^ Gilespie comments: “An inexpensive pocket watch, hence of little interest to a thief.” (Gillespie 175)

141^ 'Victorian dandy' and 'the best dinner guest in all of London' Lord Henry "cannot believe that Dorian has murdered someone, because such an action would exile him from the social world. Who would voluntarily do that? ” (Magid 55-56)

142^ According Ellmann Whistler “was temperamently inclined to make new enemies of old friends” (Ellmann 133-4)

143^ The motive of suicide connected with the painting evidence is also part of Mr.W.H.

144^ Pearce quotes Wilde’s reply in Daily Chronicle to the critical review, 30 June 1890: “The real trouble I experienced in writing the story was that of keeping the extremely obvious moral subordinate to the artistic and dramatic effect. When I first conceived the idea of a young mam selling his soul in exchange for eternal youth an idea that is old in the history of literature, but to which I have given new form -I felt that, from an aesthetic point of view, it would be difficult to keep the moral in its proper secondary place; and even now I do not feel quite sure that I have been able to do so. I think the moral too apparent.” (Pearce 238) Articlle mentioned also by Gillespie 370 and Frankel 23-4.

145^ Gillespie uses as a source - St. James Gazette 24 June 1890. The anonymous author of the article was Samuel Henry Jeyes (1857-1911) (Gillespie 361-2)

146^ Gillespie uses as a source - St. James Gazette 25 June 1890. Letter to the editor. (Gillespie 361-2)

147^ Gillespie uses as a source - St. James Gazette 26 June 1890. Letter to the editor. (Gillespie 364)

148^ Gillespie uses as a source St. James Gazette Editorial note, 24 September 24, 1890. Gillespie adds a note that it was “Miss Frances Richards, a pupil of Carolus Durand.” (Gillespie 368)

Already mentioned here above in the chapter “Originals of the main characters in the novel“.

Also in Ellmann (312-3)

149^ Gillespie uses as a source Scots Observer, July 5 1890 (Gillespie 372-4)

150^ Letter to Ralph Payne from 12 February 1894 (from Hart-Davis, Ruppert, editor. The Letters of Oscar Wilde. London: Hart-Davis, New York Harcourt. pp. 35 ) (Gillespie, 394 or by Sammels 56)

Mentioned also in the text above in the chapter “Originals of the main characters in the novel“