Christa Giles

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claimed that dandies possessed ˝natures doubles et
multiples, d’un sexe intellectuel indécis…Androgynes de
l’Histoire non plus de la Fable…˝ 348 The theme of
androgyny and homosexuality is, as we have seen, in
Wilde’s and Huysmans’ work also closely connected with
and presented as a rejection of narrow and materialistic
values. In its divergence from ˝the natural,˝ homosexuality
becomes identified with a perverse art. It is significant,
then, that Gustave Moreau was a painter whom both Wilde
and Huysmans admired. Moreau’s figures are
androgynous and asexual while simultaneously evoking an
aura of sexual depravity. His paintings are of a dream
world and the figures within them, according to Charles
Ricketts, illustrator of Wilde’s The Sphinx:
His creatures would become troubled and
shadowy indeed if brought face to face with
real facts and passions; they would swoon
upon themselves, called back by some faint
Lethean murmur or portent. Reality is
suggested only by a few fair things fostered in
the shadow of palaces, ravines, and by dim
rivers, where light, water and air have
become resolved into the limpid colours of
rare crystals. 349