An Ideal Husband

The Chilterns’ Triumph of Love tapestry is based on a painting by François Boucher—possibly his 1740 Triumph of Venus. It hangs behind Lady Chiltern at the beginning of the play, returns at the end of Act I after Sir Robert is found out, and also features in Act III. The title and subject matter suggest that love conquers all, but Wilde’s use of the tapestry is often ironic, highlighting the characters’ failures to love one another—e.g., Lady Chiltern’s remark that she can only love a husband whom she can also worship—and thus developing the theme of Fashionable Morality Versus Authentic Marriage.

Mabel references the painting again later when she mentions that she’ll be performing a tableau at Lady Basildon’s. Tableaus were recreations of famous paintings done by real actors and were quite popular in the late 19th century. Mabel, however, is dismissive of her participation and can’t even remember the painting’s name, saying, “You remember we are having tableaux, don’t you? The Triumph of something, I don’t know what” (254). Her forgetfulness satirically suggests Victorian society’s disinterest in actual love (though Mabel herself proves an exception).