Memorial · 1913-1914
Oscar Wilde's tomb
Address · Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, division 89, 75020 Paris
Metro · Père-Lachaise (2, 3)
Today · Free access. Père-Lachaise Cemetery, during opening hours.
The story
Oscar Wilde, who died on 30 November 1900 at the Hôtel d'Alsace, was first buried in the Parisian cemetery of Bagneux. In 1909 his literary executor Robert Ross acquired a plot in the 89th division of Père-Lachaise and had his remains transferred there. The monument, funded by Helen Carew, was entrusted to Jacob Epstein: a large winged sphinx carved from a block of Hopton Wood stone weighing some twenty tonnes, on a base designed by Charles Holden, shown to the London press in June 1912 and then installed in Paris in September.
The figure's nudity caused outrage. Customs demanded a duty of 120 pounds, the Préfecture de la Seine had the monument covered with a tarpaulin and placed under the guard of a gendarme, and the genitals were even plastered over. The sphinx remained hidden for nearly two years; Epstein and his friends removed the tarpaulin several times, only for it to be immediately put back. To break the deadlock, Ross had a bronze plaque in the shape of a butterfly fitted, a solution the sculptor strongly disliked.
Crowley's role is known from several accounts that disagree on the date. The version adopted by Wikipedia and by Ellen Crowell's study places in August 1914 an unveiling presided over by Crowley, which Epstein refused to attend; a few weeks later, Crowley is said to have met the sculptor wearing the bronze butterfly as a pendant, and to have handed it to Epstein one evening at the Café Royal in London. Another tradition, reported elsewhere, speaks of a forcible unveiling on 4 November 1913 with students from the Latin Quarter; it could not be confirmed. Crowley's timeline, which places him in Switzerland and then in London in early August 1914, also calls for caution regarding the latter date.
The monument has continued to attract acts of devotion and vandalism: in 1961 the sphinx's genitals were broken off and have never been found; Ross's ashes were placed in the tomb in 1950. As lipstick kisses had damaged the stone, the tomb was cleaned in 2011 and surrounded by a glass barrier about two metres high.
Listed as a historic monument on 10 March 1995, the tomb can be visited freely in the 89th division. One can see Epstein's sphinx behind its glass and the inscription carved by Joseph Cribb.
To be checked · Disputed date: 4 November 1913 or August 1914.