A photograph of Oscar Wilde on his death bed in Paris on 30 November 1900 has sold for £279,800 (inc premium) against a presale estimate of £2000-3000. The megnesium flash lit photograph was taken three hours after Wilde's death by Gilbert Maurice at the request of Robert Ross. The 84 x 115mm silver-gelatine print carries an ink stamp on the reverse of 'William E. Gray, 92 Queen's Rd., Bayswater, W., Fine Art Photographer'. Gray received his royal warrant to the King in 1904 and by 1910 was also photographer to the Queen.
Bonhams note: After receiving Extreme Unction from the Catholic Priest Father Cuthbert Dunne the day before, Wilde died on 30 November 1900 at his room in the Hôtel d'Alsace, Paris, in the presence of Robert Ross, Reginald Turner, and hotel proprietor Jean Dupoirier, who laid Wilde out, clothed in a white nightshirt. Shortly after Ross asked Gilbert Maurice to take this photograph. Gilbert Maurice "was a young marine infantryman... whom he [Wilde] picked up in the street having been struck by his beautiful eyes, and his fine profile... Although driven, initially, by passion, the relationship had its intellectual aspect" (Matthew Sturgis, Oscar: A Life, 2018). Jeremy Mason records, in a note included with the lot, that "Merlin Holland confirmed that the inscription on the back of the photograph is in the handwriting of Robert Ross...".
Other portraits of Wilde and of Lord Alfred Douglas and others also sold strongly.
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