“There was a very
fair-sized audience at the Grand Opera House last night, composed principally
of ladies, among whom were the students of Ladies college”
Hamilton
Spectator. May 31, 1882.
It was a lecture on
Art Decoration that took place at the Grand Opera House on May 30, 1882, but it
was really the lecturer, not the lecture, that drew so many.
The lecturer was the
internationally, even sensationally, famous leader of the aesthetic movement,
Oscar Wilde.
In an attempt to make
the stage aesthetically acceptable to the lecturer, it was decorated to his
specific requests:
“The stage was set
with three tables, one in the center and one on each side, each covered with a
dark colored cloth of Japanese pattern and dark border.
“Upon the side tables,
and also on the stage floor, were beautiful flowers in pots, but one looked in
vain for the lily or the sunflower.”1
1 “Odd
Oscar : How the Apostle of Aestheticism Lectured”
Hamilton
Spectator. May 31, 1882.
Oscar Wilde had been
a long tour throughout the United States, and as his time in North America was
coming to an end he headed north to Canada for appearances in Montreal and
Toronto.
It was a coup for the
manager of the Grand Opera House to
attract Wilde to Hamilton during his trip from Toronto back to the U.S.A.
Wilde’s specialty as
a lecturer was as much his appearance as how he presented his subject:
“Oscar Wilde did not
make his appearance till half past eight, when he glided on to the stage and
advanced to the center table upon which he placed his manuscript and rested the
fingers of his right hand, and assumed a ‘stained glass attitude,’ placing his
left hand on his hip, the elbow sticking out from his body.
“He was dressed in a
dark velvet coat, of the cutaway pattern, with a waistcoat of the same color
and material, as were his knee breeches. He wore black hose and pumps. Around
his throat was a wide lace scarf, and his wrists were encircled by white lace cuffs,
and he sported a handkerchief to match”1
Oscar Wilde’s exotic
appearance was not confined to the outfit he wore:
“The somber
appearance of his clothing gave an increased pallor to his face, which, though
not finely moulded, is certainly of an intelligent cast, his dark brown hair
being down to his shoulders in long waves, just shading the sides of his high
forehead, and enclosing his face in a sort of sixteenth century frame.”1
After the audience
was given a brief time to take in his appearance, Wilde launched into his
lecture:
“He delivered it in
choice language, with a musical, yet sometimes monotonous accent.
“He uses gestures
very little, and only with his right hand which, when not thus used, is
generally toying with his seal.
“He spoke in scathing
terms of the tragic ugliness of American wooden houses, whose ill-appearance was
made doubly distressing by the terrible colors in which they were painted.
“Mr. Wilde asked for
the establishment of practical schools of design in each city, and thought that
children could best be educated in kindness by teaching them the love of true
art.
“He referred to
customs and institutions on this side of the Atlantic which were susceptible of
improvement – such as the American stove, the practice of choking the river and
creeks with sawdust and slabs, the thick teacups at the hotels and the unsightly
and inconveniently arranged houses often met with.
“He denounced very
strenuously the practice of painting advertisements on fences, trees and rocks.
His remarks on art education, and the folly of cramming children with mere book
learning, while they were brought up in ignorance of the beauties of nature
were especially forceful and in accordance with common sense.”1
Oscar Wilde did make
reference to an example of architecture in Hamilton which he approved, calling
the recently constructed Canada Life building at the head of Gore park as “one
of the most beautiful buildings he had seen in this country.”1
Wilde’s lecture was
about an hour long and was listened to with close attention.
After the applause
died down, Dr. Burns, head of the Wesleyan Ladies’ College, invited Wilde to
visit the college the following morning, before he was scheduled to catch a
train to Boston.
