At first glance, Sir William Orchardson’s The First Cloud is a late Victorian domestic scene that appears to be tranquil, refined, and placid. However, at second view the luxurious elegance exposes the hypocrisy, double-standards, and bankrupted values of...

On the 21st of August I saw on Tate’s Instagram note about Beardsley’s birthday and I thought (as many other times) that I should have written about him already a long, long, time ago. Time to pay the...

As the heatwave rolls across Europe, it is certainly becoming too hot to move. And when we’re not moving, nothing is more pleasant than to lie down. So, limit all your activity, lie down comfortably and take a...

It’s official: The summer has started in the northern hemisphere, even if the weather tries to convince us otherwise in some places. To celebrate the summer solstice, our painting of the week today is Flaming June by Sir...

Looking for an inspiration on how to furnish your flat, how to dress, what to read and where to go in order to make your life more aesthetic? Look no further, here comes a guide to Aestheticism, a...

John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893) was a Victorian painter admired for his beautiful evening landscapes. British cities like London, Liverpool, and Leeds were his favorite subjects. Grimshaw’s landscapes are celebrated today, as they were in his own day, for...

The last time that we talked about the Victorians we looked at steam travel, Alice in Wonderland, Romanticism, the Pre-Raphaelites and Sherlock Holmes, so what shall we look at next? How about The Gothic, Jack the Ripper, Photography,...