Art for Art's Sake 1870s-1880s

The exhibition will be arranged in four main chronological sections, charting the development of the Aesthetic Movement in art and design through the decades from the 1860s to the 1890s. As well as paintings, prints and drawings, the show will include examples of all the 'artistic' decorative arts, together with drawings, designs and photographs, as well as portraits, fashionable dress and jewellery of the era. Literary life will be represented by some of the most beautiful books of the day, whilst a number of set-pieces will reveal the visual world of the Aesthetes, evoking the kind of rooms and ensembles of exquisite objects through which they expressed their sensibilities.

  • William Eden Nesfield - Screen

    Screen William Eden Nesfield Made by James Forsyth London 1867 Ebonised wood, with gilded and fretted decoration; painted panels of Japanese silk paper Museum no. W.37-1972

    Nesfield inserted panels of Japanese silk paper into an ebonised wooden frame decorated with stylised chrysanthemums and other Japanese motifs.

  • Lawrence Alma-Tadema - Armchair

    Armchair Lawrence Alma-Tadema Made by Johnstone, Norman & Co. London 1884-6 Mahogany, with cedar and ebony veneer, inlay of several woods, ivory and abalone shell Museum no. W.25:1-1980

    This armchair was designed for a 'Greek parlour' and belonged to Henry Gourdon Marquand, the second director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Museum no. W.25:1, 2-1980

  • Edward William Godwin - Pair of vases with sgraffito decoration

    Pair of vases with sgraffito decoration Edward William Godwin Probably made by William Watt London About 1877 Slipware, sgraffito decoration Museum no. C.1-2008 Purchased with the assistance of The Art Fund

    These are the only known examples of three-dimensional ceramics by E.W.Godwin.

  • Albert Moore - 'An Open Book'

    'An Open Book' Albert Moore London 1883-4 Watercolour Museum no. 42-1884

    Albert Moore worked out his ideas for a painting by making extensive preparatory studies. This study is for his painting Reading Aloud (1883-4).

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