Wilde as an aesthete

Oscar Wilde as an Aesthete
Towards the end of the 19th century Oscar Wilde’s popularity exploded all across the world as he established himself as an amazing playwright, poet, novelist, aesthete, and most of all a legendary wit. Wilde grew up in England during a period when the so-called Pre-Raphaelites began a movement later known as the aestheticism movement, which celebrated beauty in all things living and otherwise (art). A group of young English painters began the movement in hopes of reforming art to a point of making it a form and way of life by depicting what was pure and beautiful. In order to do so an artist was to strive to approach ideal beauty, to live a pure form of aestheticism both in their work and in their lives. Wilde made every effort to reach this aesthetic life by attempting to form beauty in his work and his life, further shown by his relationship with younger, more attractive men who he thought were the perfect models of beauty.
Throughout his life ...