The History
of Visual
Communication
The Century of Enterprise
The Victorian Era
The Victorian era of Great Britain marked the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria (reigned 1837-1901) in particular, and to the moral climate of Great Britain throughout the 19th century in general. For most, the Victorian period is still a byword for sexual repression. Victorian prudery sometimes went so far as to deem it improper to say "leg" in mixed company; instead, the preferred euphemism “limb” was used. Those going for a dip in the sea at the beach would use a bathing machine. Verbal or written communication of emotion or sexual feelings was also often proscribed so people instead used the language of flowers. However they also wrote explicit erotica, perhaps the most famous being the racy tell-all My Secret Life by Henry Spencer Ashbee, who wrote under the pseudonym Walter.
Queen Victoria
Victoria (1819 – 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previous British monarch and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India. Queen Victoria is associated with Britain's great age of industrial expansion, economic progress and, especially, empire. At her death, it was said, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set.
Victoria (1819 – 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previous British monarch and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India. Queen Victoria is associated with Britain's great age of industrial expansion, economic progress and, especially, empire. At her death, it was said, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set.
Victorian values
The moral values that were promoted were prudishness, thrift, individualism, responsibility, self-reliance, an entrepreneurial spirit, the idea of the self-made man, and the civilising mission.
​The unprecedented economic prosperity of the 19th century gave to the rise to the idea of ‘bourgeoise dignity’. Once thrift and self-sufficiency became admirable qualitites, people were free to pursue personal achievement with a good conscience. The growth of bourgeois dignity fanned the flames of individualism: growing industry showcased the individual’s ability to produce, innovate and be self-sufficient —the unlimited scope of the human mind. By 1848, ‘bourgeois ideology had wholly triumphed’, bourgeois dignity and individualism had been ineffaceably ingrained in Victorian culture.
The Victorians are often held to be insufferable prudes. Yet it would be a stretch to say puritanism was representative of Victorian society. Contrary to popular belief, evolution wasn’t shunned by Victorian society as apostasy. On the contrary, it was embraced. Even clergymen were swept off their feet by Darwin’s theories, becoming evolutionary biology enthusiasts — among them Charles Kingsley. In fact, atheism was a shibboleth of the British intelligentsia. G.K. Chesterton once remarked that by the 1890s, ‘atheism had become the religion of the suburbs’.
The Victorian value system was complex. It is often misrepresented or misunderstood. Many historians can’t see past its internal contradictions. And who can blame them? Victorian morality constantly tried to reconcile immiscible opposites: rationalism and superstition individualism and militarism, science and religion, liberalism and socialism. Victorianism was a study in having a cake and eating it too. Read more here >>>
Victoriana
Victoriana is a term used to refer to material culture related to the Victorian period (1837–1901). It often refers to decorative objects, but can also describe a variety of artifacts from the era including graphic design, publications, photography, machinery, architecture, fashion, and Victorian collections of natural specimens. especially those particularly evocative of the design style and outlook of the time. The word is usually used to refer to printed work or to objects such as machinery, house decoration, or furniture. Victoriana strongly reflects two phenomena, one of which is the necessity of catering to the tastes of the nouveaux riché of the era and the other the ability of large masses of the population having acquired the wealth and ability to travel due to the introduction of steam boats and trains. Thus, both exotica and kitsch make a strong appearance in victoriana. The term can also refer to Victorian-inspired designs, nostalgic representations, or references to Victorian-era aesthetics or culture appropriated for use in new contexts.
Travel to far away places became far more widespread resulting in the emergence of a new commodity called the postcard.
As far fashions and lifestyle elements are concerned, Men's clothing is seen as formal and stiff, women's as fussy and over-done. Clothing covered the entire body, we are told, and even the glimpse of an ankle was scandalous. Critics contend that corsets constricted women's bodies and women's lives. Homes are described as gloomy, dark, cluttered with massive and over-ornate furniture and proliferating bric-a-brac. Myth has it that even piano legs were scandalous, and covered with tiny pantalettes. Of course, much of this is untrue, or a gross exaggeration. Men's formal clothing may have been less colorful than it was in the previous century, but brilliant waistcoats and cummerbunds provided a touch of color, and smoking jackets and dressing gowns were often of rich Oriental brocades. Corsets stressed a woman's sexiness, exaggerating hips and bust by contrast with a tiny waist. Women's ball gowns bared the shoulders and tops of the breasts. The tight-fitting jersey dresses of the 1880s may have covered the body, but they left little to the imagination.
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Victorian greeting cards.
Kitsch
The term is used loosely in referring to any art that is pretentious or in bad taste, and also commercially produced items that are considered trite or crass. Because the word was brought into use as a response to a large amount of art in the 19th century where the aesthetic of art work was confused with a sense of exaggerated sentimentality or melodrama, kitsch is most closely associated with art that is sentimental, mawkish, or maudlin; however, it can be used to refer to any type of art that is deficient for similar reasons—whether it tries to appear sentimental, glamorous, theatrical, or creative, kitsch is said to be a gesture imitative of the superficial appearances of art. It is often said that kitsch relies on merely repeating convention and formula, lacking the sense of creativity and originality displayed in genuine art.
Victorian die cuts. These were the counterparts of today's stickers, with which people would ornament their diaries and letters. The effects of mass production and hence the neccessity to appeal to a far less sophisticated customer base can clearly be felt in the design of both these and the postcards above.
The Gothic Revival
The Gothic Revival was an architectural movement which originated in mid-18th century England. In the nineteenth century, increasingly serious and learned neo-Gothic styles sought to revive medieval forms, in distinction to the classical styles which were prevalent at the time. The Gothic Revival was paralleled and supported by medievalism, which had its roots in antiquarian concerns with survivals and curiosities. The movement had significant influence throughout the United Kingdom as well as in Europe and North America, and perhaps more Gothic architecture was built in nineteenth and twentieth centuries than had originally ever been built. The revived Gothic style was not limited to architecture. By the mid-nineteenth century Gothic traceries and niches could be inexpensively recreated in wallpaper, and gothic blind arcading could decorate a ceramic pitcher. The illustrated catalogue for the Great Exhibition of 1851 is replete with gothic detail, from lacemaking and carpet designs to heavy machinery.
The Pre-Raphaelites
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Paintings by Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1828 - 1882). In almost all of them William Morris' wife Jane Burden is the model.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which also came to be closely related to the Arts and Crafts movement was founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Their artistic beliefs were set out by John Ruskin, the art historian who ardently supported them. The chief principle of the was truth to nature: that a painter should draw precisely what they see, and not follow painterly conventions. They saw this as a virtue of painters working before the age of Raphael, but subsequently corrupted in more sophisticated art.
Paintings by Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne Jones (1833 - 1898).
Aubrey Beardsley
​Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (1872 – 1898) was an English illustrator and author. His black ink drawings were influenced by Japanese woodcuts, and depicted the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James McNeill Whistler. Beardsley's contribution to the development of the Art Nouveau and poster styles was significant despite his early death from tuberculosis. He is one of the important Modern Style figures.
Alfons Mucha
In 1922, after Czechoslovakia had become independent, Mucha settled in Prague and designed the new republic's stamps and banknotes.
Mucha's postcards are highly sought after collector's items. Strict postal regulations at that time meant that you could only write the address and fix the stamp on the back of the card. Therefore, space was left for the message on the front.
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Antoni Gaudi
Antoni Gaudí (1852 – 1926 ) was a Catalan architect and designer from Spain known as the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernism. Gaudí's works have a highly individualized, sui generis style. Most are located in Barcelona, including his main work, the church of the Sagrada Família.
​Gaudí's work was influenced by his passions in life: architecture, nature, and religion. He considered every detail of his creations and integrated into his architecture such crafts as ceramics, stained glass, wrought ironwork forging and carpentry. He also introduced new techniques in the treatment of materials, such as trencadís which used waste ceramic pieces.
Under the influence of neo-Gothic art and Oriental techniques, Gaudí became part of the Modernista movement which was reaching its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work transcended mainstream Modernisme, culminating in an organic style inspired by natural forms. Gaudí rarely drew detailed plans of his works, instead preferring to create them as three-dimensional scale models and moulding the details as he conceived them.
And just before the world changed forever...
We started out this section by describing the era of one British Monarch, and we will end it with the times of her heir: The Edwardian era (1901-1914) is the last period in British history to be named after the monarch who reigned over it - Edward VII who reigned from 1901 to 1910 to be succeeded by George V.
Samuel Hynes described the Edwardian era as a "leisurely time when women wore picture hats and did not vote, when the rich were not ashamed to live conspicuously, and the sun really never set on the British flag." The Edwardian period was known for elegance and luxury among the rich and powerful in Europe but also for the failure to prepare for some of the challenges of the twentieth century — and especially World War I, which broke out four years after the death of King Edward.
Further Reading:
