O. Wilde was influenced by the painter Whistler, John Ruskin (1819-1900) and the writer Walter Pater (1939-94). Pater is the person who influenced a lot in Wilde and meeting him you can understand the life and work of Oscar Wilde. Teacher of classics in Oxford, Pater participates of the worked prose from others Victorians such as Carlyle, Ruskin, Morris and Arnold.

The Pater’s work, Studies in the History of the Renaissance, (1873) converted the Blible of the British aesthetics in a doctrine of art for art’s sake. After moving to London in 1879, Wilde supported this belief and became the leader and model of the aesthetic movement, which was based on this doctrine.The aesthetic doctrine, which produced a lot of provocation in 1890 owing to the independence affirmation of the Art which was joined to the religion in the past.

The principal base of the British aesthetism was the magazine "The yellow book, 1894".

Wilde also had expert and catholic knowledge of French literature. He devoured French novels and plays by the dozen, as can be seen in the many parcels of French books. He was devoted to Flaubert, Baudelaire, and Balzac.