The Victorian Age
Images
William Dyce, Pegwell Bay
John Brett, “The Glacier at Rosenlaui” (1856)
George Hicks, Woman’s Mission
William Holman Hunt, The Awakening Conscience (1853)
The Pre-Raphaelite Meeting by Arthur Hughes after a drawing by
William Holman Hunt. 1848.
John Everett Millais (1853) by William Holman Hunt
Dante Gabriel Rossetti by William Holman Hunt
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82), Self-Portrait
Dante Rossetti, photograph by Lewis Carroll (1863)
Christina Rossetti, by her brother
Christina Rossetti (1830-94)
The Germ, third issue (changed to “Art and Poetry”)
John Ruskin, Modern Painters
• “Go to nature in all singleness of heart…
rejecting nothing, selecting nothing and
scorning nothing; believing all things to be
right and good, and rejoicing always in the
truth.”
Ford Madox Brown, from his Journals
• What wonderful effects I have seen this
evening in the hayfields! The warmth of the
uncut grass, the greeny greyness of the
unmade hay in furrows or tufts with lovely
violent shadows, and the long shades of the
trees thrown athwart all, and melting away
one tint into another imperceptibly; and one
moment more a cloud passes and all the
magic is gone.”
John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of his Parents
Millais, The Woodsman’s Daughter
Charles Allston Collins, Convent Thoughts (1851)
William Holman Hunt, Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus (1851)
John Ruskin on Valentine
•
John Ruskin, noting that the Times review had been "scornful as well as severe," in May 1851 wrote his
own letter to the Times in answer to the critics. The thing most despised by them was what he most
admired: "finish or detail, and brilliancy of colour" (Ruskin, Art Criticism 379). Ruskin admits that Silvia, as
she is painted by Hunt, is not a person that Proteus or anyone else might love at first sight, but this deficit is
more than compensated for, he says, by the "truth, power, and finish" of details like Julia's sleeve and
Valentine's chain mail.
The greatest defect of Valentine Rescuing Silvia from Proteus is the "commonness" of the faces in the four
figures, but this, he remarks, is, indeed,almost the only fault. “Further examination of this picture has even
raised the estimate I had previously formed of its marvellous truth in detail and splendour in colour; nor is its
general conception less deserving of praise: the action of Valentine, his arm thrown round Sylvia, and his
hand clasping hers at the same instant as she falls at his feet, is most faithful and beautiful, nor less so the
contending of doubt and distress with awakening hope in the half-shadowed, half-sunlit countenance of
Julia. Nay, even the momentary struggle of Proteus with Sylvia just past, is indicated by the trodden grass
and broken fungi of the foreground. But all this thoughtful conception, and absolutely inimitable execution,
fail in making immediate appeal to the feelings, owing to the unfortunate type chosen for the face of Sylvia.
Certainly this cannot be she whose lover was ‘As rich in having such a jewel, As twenty seas, if all their
sands were pearl.’’ Nor is it, perhaps, less to be regretted that, while in Shakespeare's play there are
nominally ‘Two Gentlemen," in Mr. Hunt's picture there should only be one,--at least, the kneeling figure on
the right has by no means the look of a gentleman. But this may be on purpose, for any one who
remembers the conduct of Proteus throughout the previous scenes will, I think, be disposed to consider that
the error lies more in Shakspeare's nomenclature than in Mr. Hunt's ideal” (Ruskin 375-76).
Millais, Return of the Dove to the Ark
John Everett Millais, Mariana
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Blessed Damozel
Holman Hunt, Pot of Basil
John Everett Millais, Ophelia
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Beata Beatrix
Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott
John William Waterhouse, La Belle Dame sans Merci
Augustus Welby Pugin, Contrasts
Augustus Welby Pugin, Contrasts
Houses of Parliament
Midland Hotel; St Pancras Station
The Albert Memorial, London
Bracket Clock
The Great Exhibition of All Works (the Crystal Palace) (1851)
The Great Exhibition, Interior
The Great Exhibition, Interior
J.M.W. Turner, Rain, Steam and Speed--The Great Western Railway (1844)
Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
Oscar Wilde (New York City, 1882)
Vanity Fair, Oscar Wilde at height of his fame (1884)
Lord Alfred Douglas
Illustrated Police News, 4/5/1895
Wilde, "Critic as Artist”
"From time to time the world cries out against some
charming artistic poet, because, to use its hackneyed and
silly phrase, he has 'nothing to say.' But if he had
something to say, he would probably say it, and the result
would be tedious. It is just because he has no new
message, that he can do beautiful work. He gains his
inspiration from form, and from form purely, as an artist
should. A real passion would ruin him. Whatever actually
occurs is spoiled for art."
John Everett Millais, Mariana
John Everett Millais, Ophelia
Aubrey Beardsley
Aubrey Beardsley, Venus
Aubrey Beardsley, Salome
Aubrey Beardsley, Lysistrata
Aubrey Beardsley, Lacdeomonian Ambassadors
• From Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of
Being Ernest
– Cecily: I hope your hair curls naturally, does it?
– Algernon: Yes, darling with a little help from
others (1723).
• How is this exchange an inversion of
Romantic ideas?
• How does the following exchange
undermine Victorian ideas of sincerity and
earnestness?
– Lady Bracknell: He [Algernon] has nothing, but he
looks everything. What more can one desire (1735)?
– Algernon: Now produce your explanation and pray
make it improbable.
– Jack: Algy, you never talk anything but nonsense.
Algernon: Nobody ever does.
• From Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of
Being Ernest
•
Cecily: Why did you pretend to be my guardian’s brother?
Algernon: In order that I might have an opportunity of meeting you.
Cecily [to Gwendolyn]: That certainly seems a satisfactory
explanation, does it not?
Gwen: Yes, dear, if you can believe him.
Cecily: I don’t. But that does not affect the wonderful beauty of his
answer.
Gwen: True. In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the
vital thing. (1731)
• From Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of
Being Ernest
• Gwendolyn: If you are not too long, I will wait for you all
my life.
• Algernon: I hope tomorrow is going to be a fine day.
Lane: It never is, sir.
Algernon: Lane, you’re a perfect pessimist.
Lane: I do my best to give satisfaction, sir. (1713)