Here are Oscar and Bosie in May 1893 posing at the studio of the photographer Gillman & Co. of Oxford, whose establishment was at 107 St Aldate’s Street. That location today is a Ladbrokes Off Track Betting Shop.
This well known picture is seemingly unposed: the two are both smoking and seemingly distant—perhaps between arguments.
But upon inspection you’ll see that, in keeping with their lives, all was not as it seems.
Take your eyes off those snazzy socks for a minute and you’ll notice that his Lordship was not as well shod as you might imagine.
A closer look proves that the aristocratic Alfred had a slim sole indeed, no doubt caused by all that walking between passion and poetry as alluded to by Wilde in his letter to him:
My Own Boy,
Your sonnet is quite lovely, and it is a marvel that those red rose-leaf lips of yours should be made no less for the madness of music and song than for the madness of kissing. Your slim gilt soul walks between passion and poetry. I know Hyacinthus, whom Apollo loved so madly, was you in Greek days.
Why are you alone in London, and when do you go to Salisbury? Do go there to cool your hands in the grey twilight of Gothic things, and come here whenever you like. It is a lovely place and lacks only you; but go to Salisbury first.
Always, with undying love, yours,
Oscar
© John Cooper, 2018
Clearly from a hole in his allowance period. Thanks for informative site.