A rarely seen portrait of Oscar Wilde that typically hangs in a small hallway inside UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library is on public display for the first time in Great Britain as part of an exhibition at London’s Tate Gallery.
Owned by UCLA, the near-life-sized portrait went on view today in the Tate’s exhibition “Queer British Art 1861-1967, which runs through Oct. 1.
The painting has a slightly incongruous thematic connection to this exhibition of queer art, said Joseph Bristow, UCLA Distinguished Professor of English and noted expert on the life and times of Oscar Wilde. The Irish author was not celebrated as a queer artist in his time, and, in fact, was jailed in England because of his sexual orientation.