I have been told that this was merely a return of money she had advanced; but there can be no doubt that Oscar, unlike his brother Willie, helped his mother again and again most generously, though Willie was always her favourite.
Oscar returned to England in April, 1883, and lectured to the Art Students at their club in Golden Square.

This at once brought about a break with Whistler who accused him of plagiarism:--"Picking from our platters the plums for the puddings he peddles in the provinces." If one compares this lecture with Oscar's on "The English Renaissance of Art," delivered in New York only a year before, and with Whistler's well-known opinions, it is impossible not to admit that the charge was justified.

Such phrases as "artists are not to copy beauty but to create it ...

a picture is a purely decorative thing," proclaim their author.
The long newspaper wrangle between the two was brought to a head in 1885, when Whistler gave his famous _Ten o'clock_ discourse on Art.
This lecture was infinitely better than any of Oscar Wilde's.

Twenty odd years older than Wilde, Whistler was a master of all his resources: he was not only witty, but he had new views on art and original ideas.