From Intentions 136
Sunday the 30th of November 2025 marked the 125th anniversary of Oscar Wilde’s death in Paris. I had decided I was going to Paris, thinking there would be a commemorative event of some kind, despite not knowing what was happening. When I was on the Eurostar to Paris, two days before the anniversary, I received confirmation of what the event was, so I e-mailed the organiser, hoping to be added to the guest list. It worked.
The event, which started at noon on the day of the anniversary, was the unveiling of a bronze bust of Oscar Wilde, created by Czech sculptor Marie Šeborová and commissioned by retired Irish barrister Bill Shipsey, the founder of ‘Art for Human Rights’.
The Irish Embassy, the former home of the Marquis de Breteuil where the Prince of Wales stayed on an extended visit 1912, is a five-minute walk from the Arc de Triomphe. The bust wasn’t covered up, it was visible as soon as you walked into the Embassy function room, sitting on an ornate plinth. With wavy, collar-length hair and a bow tied around his neck, this sculpture – roughly fifty percent larger than life-size ‒ has quite a piercing gaze, which compliments the softness of his hair and face. This room in the Embassy overlooks the garden where it will eventually be sited, near the bust of renowned twentieth-century Irish modernist architect and designer Eileen Gray. Actor Simon Callow, Gyles Brandreth and Merlin Holland were among the guests.
The first speaker was Niall Burgess, the Irish Ambassador to France, who talked briefly about Oscar Wilde and his time in Paris and of how all of us attending had been shaped, influenced or inspired by Oscar Wilde. Bill Shipsey thanked Merlin Holland for his support for the project and Marie Šeborová for sculpting the bust of which two more casts have been produced. One is destined for the garden of the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. The third has been offered to the owners of L’Hôtel, Paris.
Bill Shipsey then talked about the Shakespeare & Company published book, Paris in Our View, which contains a series of twelve window view drawings by Italian artist Matteo Pericoli of twelve writers who wrote poems about Paris while living there. One drawing featured the courtyard view from Oscar Wilde’s window at the Hôtel d’Alsace (now L’Hôtel) where Oscar Wilde lived and died in the last year of his life. Bill Shipsey and Matteo Pericoli collaborated to produce 30 signed, numbered prints from Matteo’s original. Bill presented one of the artist’s proofs to Merlin Holland.
I bought number 30 of the edition, a lovely reminder of that day. (As I write this in early January, a limited number of those prints are still available from Art for Human Rights @ €275 plus shipping)
After the talk, where the sculptor Marie Šeborová spoke about creating the bronze bust of Oscar, I spoke to Simon Callow, then to Gyles Brandreth who was his usual effervescent self and who kindly posed for photos with me. Before leaving I had a look round the garden where the bust will go. A high solid fence runs around the garden, so it won’t be visible from outside the Embassy.
As it was sunny for this final day of November, I dropped my newly acquired print off at my hotel and headed to Père Lachaise Cemetery. Oscar Wilde’s tomb was bathed in the winter sun and attracting a steady stream of admirers. I had suggested a video call to several friends, so they were able to join me and watch the people going by and have a walk round Oscar’s tomb with me.
My last visit of the day was to L’Hôtel (formally Hôtel d’Alsace), where Oscar Wilde lived out his final months, and died, apparently in the bar area on the ground floor, in what used to be his room – this is what I was told by the barman. I never saw the view into the courtyard, as it was dark when I arrived and the curtains were drawn, so perhaps on my next visit… The bar is now called Wilde’s, so naturally I ordered a glass of absinthe to warm myself up. There are still nods to Oscar in the hotel: a framed portrait and a vase of peacock feathers in an alcove on the stone spiral staircase leading to the toilets in the cellar, and, in the bar area, a gilt picture frame containing information and mementoes.
It was a busy Sunday, but walking in Oscar’s footsteps I felt like I had done his memory justice on this anniversary.
RUPERT NYE
Note: The photo shows Merlin Holland and Czech sculptor Marie Šeborová with the new bust