In the late 19th century, Oscar Wilde was a passionate proponent of Aesthetics, a movement that emphasized aesthetic values over socio-political themes in literature, fine art, and music. In 1887 Wilde established himself as an art critic by reviewing an exhibition of London's anti-establishment Grosvenor Gallery. He and the devotees of the gallery, whose interiors were green and yellow, dressed in those colors. And the similarly clad sunflower became the perfect accessory.
According to Nancy Rutman in her "Sunflower Power" article for Organic Gardening….
"The unconventional Aesthetes were lampooned in Punch magazine and satirized in the 1881 Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Patience, which included the following lines:
A pallid and thin young man,
A haggard and lank young man,
A greenery-yallery, Grosvenor Gallery,
Foot-in-the-grave young man!
The success of Patience in England inspired Wilde's overseas
tour and launched him as a celebrity, but its stereotypical characters
caricatured the sexuality of Aesthetic leaders. So some of the fans who
wore sunflowers to Wilde's lectures surely wore them as the 19th-century
equivalent of the gay-pride rainbow flag.
The modern connotation of the
word gay may stem from the fact that it was an acronym for Green And
Yellow. Greenery-yallery." (Read the full article.)
In honor of the U.S. Supreme Court hearing arguments for federal recognition of same-sex marriage this week, I've selected some dogs and sunflowers.
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