‘I became obsessed with Wilde again. [...] I went on drawing him, painting him, making more sculpture of him. Wilde and the Wallpaper commemorates one of his last sayings, made when lying ill in a hotel bedroom in Paris and addressing the wallpaper – ‘One of us has to go and I fear it will be me’.

Maggi Hambling frequently cites Oscar Wilde amongst her key influences – both as an artist and as a persona. Being read his stories for children at school, Hambling was fascinated by his elegant and often humorous style. For her 12th birthday she asked for a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), the first book she ever read. Shortly after she created her first of many artworks dedicated to the writer, the most famous of which is her sculpture A Conversation with Oscar Wilde, which was installed in Central London in 1998.