Gothic revival buildings and sentimental portraits of a young queen: the first part of the Victorian era set the stage for the rest of the century.
1837 - 1848
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Assyrian Lamassus in Victorian Britain
Lamassus exhibited in Victorian Britain both educated the British public and legitimized British imperialism in Western Asia.
Cashmere shawls
For centuries, handwoven cloth from the Kashmir region of the Indian subcontinent has been revered for its exquisite softness and decorative surface patterns.
Charles Barry and A.W.N. Pugin, Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament)
Unsettled by industrialization and the ugliness of the modern world, Victorians looked back to the Gothic style.
Robert Smirke, The British Museum
The visual vocabulary of classical antiquity was well-suited to the the British Empire’s temple of knowledge.
Sir Edwin Landseer, Windsor Castle in Modern Times
A tribute to home, hearth, and hounds, this painting hung in Queen Victoria’s sitting room and earned her praise.
