When an artist composes a great piece of work, he puts his heart into it. Part of that person is invested into its creation, which makes it more than just a statue in the park, or a picture on a wall. In Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, more than the artist’s heart is put into his painting. Basil Hallward, an artist, paints an amazing lifelike portrait of a man named Dorian Gray. From the moment that these two men met, it was clear that Hallward was infatuated with Gray, and there are several indirect references in the book that he is in love with him-though the author never states either is a homosexual. The painting changes Dorian’s life in ways unimaginable.
After the portrait is created, Dorian stops aging over time. The painting on the other hand, ages with the years and grows older like a real human being would. This picture is a driving force in Dorian’s life, and while he was once a very good person, his conscience was in the painting that led him to lead a corrupt life causing tragedy to others. On the final pages of the book, Dorian becomes fed up with what the painting makes him do, and after murdering Hallward, the creator of the evil painting, he decides to get rid of this dreaded piece of art once and for all.
Dorian takes the same knife that he killed Hallward with, and stabs the portrait of his older self. A sudden scream echo’s, leading the servants to his room a short time later. There, dead on the floor, is an old unrecognizable man who they find out is Dorian. The only evidence that this thing was once Dorian Gray was by the rings on his hands. He lay there, dead on the floor, with a knife stabbed through his heart. Hanging on the wall was a portrait of his, but it was him in his younger years-his youth.
The Essay on Formal Analysis on Rachel Ruvigny Portrait by Anthony Van Dyke
There are actually two versions of Anthony van Dyck’s painting of the countess of Southampton; Anthony van Dyck, Rachel de Ruvigny, Countess of Southampton, ca. 1640, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (see fig. 1) and Anthony van Dyck, Rachel de Ruvigny, Countess of Southampton as ‘Fortune’, ca. 1638, Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge (see fig. 2). There have been discussions on ...
He spent his last living moments as a young person, as he had since the picture was painted. He died as an old man, his real age, ‘withered, and wrinkled.’ ; These details included by the author at the books conclusion explain that while Dorian stabbed the picture, he himself was stabbed to death through the heart, and the picture and the person changed places. The picture, now eternally young, is the only living remembrance of this occurrence, and Dorian Gray lay dead, indirectly committing suicide.
