Anarchism has long had an association with the arts, particularly with visual art, music and literature. This can be dated back to the start of anarchism as a named political concept, and the writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon on the French realist painter Gustave Courbet. In an essay on Courbet of 1857 Proudhon had set out a principle for art, which he saw in the work of Courbet, that it should show the real lives of the working classes and the injustices working people face at the hands of the bourgeoisie.
Les chataigniers a Osny (1888) by anarchist painter Camille Pissarro, an example of blending anarchism and art
Cubist anarchist art, depicting the Tottenham protests
The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli by Carlo Carrà, 1911
Anarchist statue and mural
The Soul of Man Under Socialism
"The Soul of Man Under Socialism" is an 1891 essay by Oscar Wilde in which he expounds a libertarian socialist worldview and a critique of charity. The writing of "The Soul of Man" followed Wilde's conversion to anarchist philosophy, following his reading of the works of Peter Kropotkin.
"The Soul of Man Under Socialism." First publication in Fortnightly Review February 1891, p. 292
1895 book edition under the truncated title The Soul of Man, "privately printed" in 50 copies at Chiswick Press, 30 May 1895, five days after Wilde's conviction for gross indecency.
