Christa Giles

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Both Wilde’s and Huysmans’ work has its
foundation in a series of inescapable paradoxes which issue
from their view of the interrelationship between life and
art. Art is the fulcrum from which all values are derived yet
paradoxically art would deny the very life that it relies
upon. Thus, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, when Basil
remarks that ˝Love is a more wonderful thing than Art,˝
Lord Henry responds, ˝They are both simply forms of
imitation.˝ 429 Life becomes real and meaningful only when
perceived within an aesthetic framework. It is in part for
this reason that Wilde and Huysmans embrace and write
about all the arts (but in particular literature and painting)
and see them as closely related.
Huysmans spent three years between the
publication of the naturalist novel En Ménage (1861) and A
rebours (1884) writing art criticism. His best work appeared
in Le Voltaire, La Reforme, and La Revue littéraire et artistique.
In 1883, most of these articles were collected in one volume,
L’Art Moderne. He also wrote articles on Cézanne, Degas,
Moreau, Whistler, Rops, Van Luyken, Goya, Turner, and
Richard Wagner, espousing artists who, although known,
were not fully recognized. Wilde also expatiated at length
on his ideas on the nature of art in his work. What is most
striking in these essays on art and art criticism is Wilde’s