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Aestheticism Movement One of Oscar Wilde’s many views in life included his saying, “Art for art’s sake.” Wilde was involved in the aestheticism movement, which attempted to establish art as just pieces of beauty and nothing more. Many people of the Victorian Era believed all works of art had a deeper meaning and purpose other than for pleasure, but Wilde worked to disprove this idea. Through the three main characters in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde expressed his views on art in very different ways. Basil Hallward, an artist, supported the aestheticism movement while talking of his painting of Dorian Gray. Hallward’s portrait of Gray was remarkable in the sense that it was beautiful, but it also revealed a little about the painter because of all the emotion he put into his work. Hallward did not want to sell the painting because he felt as if he was selling himself too. He said, “An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothin