Christa Giles

Nulle individualité chez la plupart de ces
peintres; une même et unique vision d’un site
arrangé suivant la predilection du public. 573
227
Wilde similarly felt that art which was the product of an
original mind was of necessity iconoclastic, and
consequently must challenge, even shock, the public. For
the public, according to Wilde,
are continually asking Art to be popular, to
please their want of taste, to flatter their
absurd vanity, to tell them what they have
been told before, to show them what they
ought to be tired of seeing…
˝Now Art,˝ Wilde concludes, ˝should never try to be
popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.˝ 574
Wilde, like Huysmans, connects intensity of vision with
individuality and praises the artist who rejects public
standards of authority. However, because the artist’s
function is to ˝realise his own perfection,˝ 575 the end result
is that he becomes an educator (although this is not his
aim), appealing initially only to the perceptive few, but
eventually becoming more widely appreciated. Thus the
true artist
has created in the public both taste and
temperament. The public appreciates his