HISTORY, PERIODS & STYLES
19th Century
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Art Nouveau & the Erotic
Art Nouveau (1890-1914) appeared during a period of radical change in Europe, as growing urbanization and political unrest forced a transformation of individual consciousness and collective society. Drawing on history, nature, symbolism and craft movements from around the world, Art Nouveau design found its expression in domestic objects, and thus brought its ideologies into the most intimate corners of human life.
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International Arts and Crafts
17 March - 24 July 2005
This exhibition set out the story of the Arts and Crafts Movement which laid the foundation for approaches to design in the 20th century. It was the first exhibition to trace the Movement’s global progress from its origins in Britain to subsequent widespread international adoption, interpretation and development.
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Victorian Christmas Reading
The commercialisation of Christmas, which many today consider a bane of modern life, in fact has its origins in the 1840s. Henry Cole sent the first Christmas card (now in the Word & Image department of the V&A) in 1843.
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Steam & Speed: Industry, Transport and Communication
The scale of Britain's industrial expansion during the nineteenth century was enormous and unprecedented. Fuelled by a rapid increase in international trade and a growing middle-class demand for consumer goods, Britain led the world in the development of rail networks and steamships.
More on Steam & Speed: Industry, Transport and Communication
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The Victorian Vision of China and Japan
The myth of the exotic East has always been a potent one in the West, fuelling such images as Coleridge's 'stately pleasure domes'. By the time Victoria came to the throne in 1837, however, the romantic yearning to penetrate hidden worlds was being superseded by a desire to reach the apparently enormous, but hitherto untouched, markets of East Asia. With the 'opening' of China and Japan fantasies met with realities and new mythologies and stereotypes of the East were constructed.
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Gender, Health, Medicine & Sexuality in Victorian England
The Victorian period saw the beginnings of a shift in social philosophy regarding legal and customary gender relations. This shift was marked by a move away from the patriarchal pattern of male supremacy/female dependency - justified at the time by the notion of public and private 'separate spheres' - towards modern concepts of gender equality in legal, professional and personal affairs.
More on Gender, Health, Medicine & Sexuality in Victorian England
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Inventing New Britain : The Victorian Vision
5 April - 29 July 2001
A century after the death of Queen Victoria, this landmark exhibition provided a timely and thought provoking assessment of the legacy of her reign.
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Rural England Through a Victorian Lens: Benjamin Brecknell Turner
5 April - 27 August 2001
Benjamin Brecknell Turner (1815-94) is known for his beautiful early photographs of rural England. He was one of the first, and remains one of the greatest, of all British photographers. His superb vintage prints, now in the V&A, form the basis of both a book and exhibition, organised by the V&A in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and opening alongside the V&A's spring 2001 exhibition The Victorian Vision: Inventing New Britain.
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Chinese and Indian Style Guide
Designs influenced by Chinese and Indian art and architecture were extremely popular in the early 19th century. The renewed interest in the East was stimulated by objects imported from Asia and by newly-published books on India and China. The scenes illustrated in these volumes provided British designers and manufacturers with fresh sources of inspiration.
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Classical and Renaissance Revival Style Guide
There was an enormous revival of interest in Classical and Renaissance art from about 1850. Archaeological discoveries in Greece, Italy and Egypt fuelled the imagination of designers. Renaissance art and architecture of the 15th and 16th centuries, itself inspired by ancient Rome, also had a great influence. Classical and Renaissance pieces were sometimes copied quite closely, but often a variety of forms and motifs were combined or reinterpreted.
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French Style Style Guide
French Style was a revival of styles that had been fashionable in France between 1660 and 1790. This taste was fuelled by the arrival in Britain of art dispersed after the French Revolution of 1789. The French Style represented luxury and glamour and was the most popular commercial style in Britain from about 1835 to 1880.
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Aestheticism Style Guide
Aestheticism was an approach to life based on the philosophy of 'art for art's sake'. It emphasised the importance of art above everything else and the pleasure to be found in beautiful things. Aetheticism was a complex mixture of a number of styles. Classical and Japanese art were particular inspirations. It was fashionable from 1870 to 1900.
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Arts and Crafts Style Guide
Arts and Crafts style developed in the 1860s as a reaction against the growing industrialisation of Victorian Britain. Those involved believed in the equality of all the arts and the importance and pleasure of work. The appearance of the style resulted from the principles involved in the making of the objects. By the end of the century such ideals had affected the design and manufacture of all the decorative arts in Britain.
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Influence of India Style Guide
India had special significance in 19th-century Britain. It was the key possession of the British Empire and many goods were made there for the British market. The rich displays of Indian art and design shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and at subsequent exhibitions influenced a number of British designers and commentators in the second half of the 19th century.
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Influence of China Style Guide
The influence of China was seen in British design from the late 17th century onwards. The Chinoiserie style, as it was known, was still in use in the 19th century for objects made for the popular market. The expansion of British diplomatic, trade and religious activity in China in the 1850s and 1860s re-awakened people's interest in the 'Celestial Empire' and brought previously unknown examples of Chinese art and design to the attention of British collectors and designers. Chinese ceramics, in particular, had a great influence on British potters.
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Influence of Islam Style Guide
The arts of the Islamic world became increasingly influential from the 1840s. The complex religious and historical factors influencing the appearance of objects from Iran, Turkey, north Africa and southern Spain were seldom understood, but such works were deeply admired for their technical and aesthetic brilliance. Colours, patterns and motifs from a variety of sources were used to create a composite 'Islamic' style.
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The Scottish School Style Guide
The Scottish School was a group of artists and designers who established a new and strikingly modern style in the 1880s. They worked in Glasgow and Edinburgh creating decorative schemes in which architecture, interior design, furniture and fittings harmonised. They aimed to produce objects and environments that were suited to contemporary cosmopolitan life. The Scottish School style was fashionable from 1885 to 1915.
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Art Nouveau
Duration: 7 mins 42 secs