Periods, Cultures, Styles > Aestheticism

Aestheticism

Primarily a British and American style that stressed beauty and the autonomous value of art over narrative content. Associated with the phrase "art for art's sake."

Dates

c. 1862–1900

Places

Europe > Western Europe > England
North America > United States

Basics Works of Art Artists Periods, Cultures, Styles Curated Guides

Basics to get you started

The Aesthetic Movement

Becoming modern in 19th-century Europe, an introduction

Japonisme

Art Appreciation: Nature—comparisons and connections

Formalism I: Formal Harmony

Kehinde Wiley on John Singer Sargent

Works of Art

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl

1862

William Morris, The Green Dining Room

1866–67

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket

1875

John Singer Sargent, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose

1885–86

John Singer Sargent, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit

1882

John Singer Sargent, Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)

1883–84

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, A Reading from Homer

1885

Artists

Stained glass panels from The Green Dining Room at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Part of a series entitled The Garland Weavers, designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones and made by Morris, Marshall & Faulkner & Co. England, 1866-67.

Stained glass panels from The Green Dining Room at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Part of a series entitled The Garland Weavers, designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones and made by Morris, Marshall & Faulkner & Co. England, 1866-67.

Edward Coley Burne-Jones

John Roddam Spencer Stanhope

John Singer Sargent

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Albert Pinkham Ryder

Curated Guides to Aestheticism

All Syllabi

Modern Art Syllabus

Syllabus

19th-Century European Art Syllabus

Syllabus