The Victorian era was named after Queen Victoria, starting from the beginning of her reign in 1837 culminating in 1901. The Victorian era precedes the Georgian period and is generally seen to be a time of prosperity for the UK due to profits from the British Empire abroad and the great achievements in the industrial industry.
Due to the fast expanding British nation under Queen Victoria, Neoclassicism reamerged and flourished, really to fulfil a need for a genre of painting, which could express the aspirations and power of a rapidly growing Britain. Other art genres and movements that chracterize the Victorian era are: Orientalism, Portraiture, Fairy paintings and Land and Seascapes
Britain's interest in the Orient was aroused for many reasons: the development of travel to India, her political and commercial involvement in the Middle East, the widespread success of the Illustrated London News and scientific publications, and the revival of religious fervour, which sent scholars to the Holy Land. Many Victorian artists were interested in the East only in so much as it provided them with backgrounds for their religious paintings; even Frederick Goodall, whose Egyptian fellahs, camels and oases are in the pure Orientalist tradition, admitted that he visited Egypt only in order to study Scriptural subjects. There were, however, a few artists who were far more interested in contemporary Islamic life than the classical or Biblical past. although their paintings attracted a good deal of attention, particularly the oils and watercolours of J. F. Lewis, the public also enjoyed fantasy scenes of luscious slave girls seen at the Academy of Arts.
J F Lewis - The Kibab Shop. Original dimensions: 53.3 x 78.7 cm. This painting was sold at Sotheby's New York, April 24th 09 for £2,279,578.03. To order a Victorian Painting and own an oil painting copy please click here
Fairy Paintings in the Victorian Era
Fairy paintings appeared regularly in Royal Academy exhibitions throughout the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth. Most of the artists from the early Victorian period took their subjects from the plays of Shakespeare, most notably A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest, and the poetry of Milton and Spenser. They usually added imaginative details to these works culled from folklore and fairy tales. An even larger audience for fairy images emerged with the expanding readership of illustrated books and magazines after mid-century.
Edward Hughes (1851 - 1914) - Midsummer Eve. To order your own Victorian fine art reproduction please click here Victorian era and the Victorian era explained
Victorian art also usually highlights themes to do with love, childhood, nature and family with an emphasis on sentimentality.
Top Victorian artists are:
· Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1836-1912 · Sophie Anderson, 1823-1903 · Jerry Barrett, 1824-1906
· Frank Brangwyn, 1867-1956 · William A. Breakspeare, 1872-1903 · John Brett, 1830-1902
· Frederick Lee Bridell, 1833-1863 · Violet Brunton, 1878-1951 · Ford Madox Brown, 1821-1893
· Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny, 1864-1947 · Sir Edward Burne-Jones, 1833-1896 · Sir Philip Burne-Jones, 1861-1926
· John Burr, 1834-93 · John Collier, 1850-1934 · Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1836-1912
· Sophie Anderson, 1823-1903 · Jerry Barrett, 1824-1906 · Robert Anning Bell, 1863-1933
· Sir John Everett Millais · Albert Joseph Moore, 1841-1893 · Henry Moore, 1831-1893
If you're a lover of Victorian art then visit our Victorian art gallery, we can replicate any painting there and if you can't see a painting you like please let us know and we'll be happy to paint it for you.
References: www.victorianweb.org
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