Oscar Wilde was an Irish writer born in 1854 who is known for works like The Picture of Dorian Gray and for his views on art. He believed that art should exist solely for beauty's sake rather than to prove any ethical point or have social utility. In a preface defending Dorian Gray, Wilde stated that artists do not desire to prove anything and have no ethical sympathies, and that art mirrors spectators rather than life itself. He felt the only excuse for creating something useless is admiring it intensely.