Embora tenha funcionando apenas entre os anos de 1877 e 1890, a Galeria provou ser crucial para o Esteticismo por fornecer um lar para artistas, cujas abordagens não eram bem-vindas pelos sabores tradicionais dos espaços de exposição habituais. A abordagem inovadora dos Lindsays tornou a galeria uma força influente na arte e na sociedade vitorianas e também na evolução da prática museológica moderna atual.

[5] Os estudantes de advocacia em Middle Temple são obrigados a jantar na instituição pelo menos doze vezes. Após a refeição, seguem-se debates e palestras.

[6] No original “Bar”, ou “barristers” (advogados que fazem a defesa do cliente na corte), formados em Middle Temple, onde até 1312 se localizava a Ordem dos Templários na Inglaterra.

[7] Refere-se ao formato de estrela da maior parte das medalhas da cavalaria britânica e à Ordem da Jarreteira, criada por Eduardo III em 1344 como a mais alta condecoração da nobreza britânica.

[8] Oscar Wilde, com a menção a Gladstone e Schouvaloff, fornece uma das poucas pistas sobre o tempo em que transcorre a trama. William Gladstone (1809-1898) ocupou o cargo de primeiro-ministro pela primeira vez entre 1868 e 1874, na mesma época em que o conde Peter Schouvaloff (1827-1882) ocupou o posto de embaixador da Rússia, em Londres, entre os anos de 1873 e 1879. Deste modo, a história situa-se logo após a intersecção do período do ministério de Gladstone e da embaixada de Schouvaloff, ou seja, após 1874, entre os anos de 1877 e 1882 - ver notas 13 e 14.

[9]“A dream of form in days of thought” do poema “To a Greek Girl”, do escritor Austin Dobson (1840-1921).

[10] Outra menção ao tempo da trama: Thomas Agnew (1827-1883) era um importante negociador de arte na Londres das décadas de 1860-1880.

CHAPTER II

As they entered they saw Dorian Gray. He was seated at the piano, with his back to them, turning over the pages of a volume of Schumann’s “Forest Scenes.” “You must lend me these, Basil,” he cried. “I want to learn them. They are perfectly charming.”

“That entirely depends on how you sit today, Dorian.”

“Oh, I am tired of sitting, and I don’t want a life-sized portrait of myself,” answered the lad, swinging round on the music-stool, in a wilful, petulant manner. When he caught sight of Lord Henry, a faint blush colored his cheeks for a moment, and he started up. “I beg your pardon, Basil, but I didn’t know you had any one with you.”

“This is Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian, an old Oxford friend of mine. I have just been telling him what a capital sitter you were, and now you have spoiled everything.”

“You have not spoiled my pleasure in meeting you, Mr. Gray,” said Lord Henry, stepping forward and shaking him by the hand. “My aunt has often spoken to me about you. You are one of her favorites, and, I am afraid, one of her victims also.”

“I am in Lady Agatha’s black books at present,” answered Dorian, with a funny look of penitence. “I promised to go to her club in Whitechapel with her last Tuesday, and I really forgot all about it. We were to have played a duet together, three duets, I believe. I don’t know what she will say to me. I am far too frightened to call.”

“Oh, I will make your peace with my aunt. She is quite devoted to you. And I don’t think it really matters about your not being there. The audience probably thought it was a duet. When Aunt Agatha sits down to the piano she makes quite enough noise for two people.”

“That is very horrid to her, and not very nice to me,” answered Dorian, laughing.

Lord Henry looked at him. Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely-curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candor of youth was there, as well as all youth’s passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world. No wonder Basil Hallward worshipped him.