Victorian art is often dismissed as an overly sentimental and cutesy style of painting, and nowhere are these qualities more apparent than in Bubbles.
Pre-Raphaelites and mid-Victorian art
The Shadow of Death is an inspired representation of a youthful Christ who cannot escape his destiny.
William Holman Hunt, The Shadow of Death
Discover the radical politics of interior design in the Arts & Crafts movement.
William Morris, useful beauty in the home
Although today Atkins’s prints are sold and viewed as art, they were originally made as botanical illustrations.
Anna Atkins and the cyanotype process
Everyone wanted to have a look at the cast of characters Frith created—their variety provides the modern viewer with a fascinating glimpse into Victorian life.
William Powell Frith, Derby Day
The Lady of Shalott is a powerful example of later Pre-Raphaelitism.
William Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott
The Last of England is a poignant reminder of the journey made by millions of people during the 19th century.
Ford Madox Brown, The Last of England
Throughout his career, Hunt stayed close to the aesthetic of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in his attention to detail and insistence on narrative content.
William Holman Hunt, Isabella or the Pot ...
The contrast between the dark menswear and the ornate womenswear of the 19th century helped to cast women as accessories of their fathers or husbands.
A Portrait of John Ruskin and Masculine ...
A princess falls under a spell and sleeps for a hundred years — but Burne-Jones never shows us the kiss that awakens her.
Sleeping Beauty — but without the Kiss: ...
This controversial new movement claimed that art could be divorced from moral or narrative content.
The Aesthetic Movement
In this tragic painting, Rossetti draws a comparison between himself and the medieval poet who shared his name.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Beata Beatrix
Visually and politically radical, Work provides a visualization of the English social classes.
Curator’s choice – Ford Madox Brown’s Work
Made when he was nineteen, this painting by Millais was a pictorial manifesto for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Curator’s choice – Millais’s Isabella
Fossiliferous stone, many-colored mosaics, and banded bricks: meaning is in the material in this Victorian church.
William Butterfield, All Saints, Margaret Street, London
Morris and his friends designed and crafted every inch of his house, including the wallpaper and furniture.
William Morris and Philip Webb, Red House
Cursed by a spell that will kill her if she leaves her castle, this romantic redhead takes a fatal boat ride.
John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott
A beautiful female figure reveals the contrasts between the confines of bondage and the audacity of hope.
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Hope
Fatal attraction or the case of the murderous mermaid? The forecast isn’t good for Burne-Jones’s sunken sailor.
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, The Depths of ...
Love conquers all for the legendary King Cophetua who finds love outside of his social sphere.
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