#Victorian Era

Women Artists

The Divine Sarah: Sarah Bernhardt, The First Artist Superstar

While we are all familiar with celebrity culture and can recognize all of the Kardashians by their silhouettes, the idea of ‘celebrity’ is not a...

Wendy Gray 21 March 2025

may-morris-embroidered-hanging-pomegranate Artist Stories

May Morris: A Remarkable Arts & Crafts Woman

May Morris (1862–1938) once described herself as a “remarkable woman… though none of you seemed to think so.” These words proved painfully...

Emily Snow 13 March 2025

Jane Morris Love Story

Jane Morris: A Pre-Raphaelite Artist and Muse

Jane Morris (1839-1914) was an English embroiderer and artists’ model who embodied the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of beauty. She was a model and muse to...

Marija Canjuga 12 March 2025

JMW Turner, Fighting Temeraire, 1839, National Gallery, London, UK. News

Turner at 250: The Best Anniversary Exhibitions

The year 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Mallord William Turner, arguably Britain’s greatest landscape painter.

Catriona Miller 13 February 2025

Women Artists

A House of Their Own: The Red Rose Girls

In an old house in Philadelphia at the turn of the 20th century, four women made their home and their art together. Three decades before Virginia...

Guest Profile 13 February 2025

European Art

Victorian Feminists and Their Supernatural Powers

The Victorian feminists in 19th-century England paved the way for the women’s movement across the world. The “New Woman,” as she was called,...

Anastasia Manioudaki 30 January 2025

Neoclassicism

Story of Circe According to John William Waterhouse

Circe is one of the fascinating characters in Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey. Due to her complex and unconventional nature, many painters throughout...

Erol Degirmenci 30 January 2025

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth by John Singer Sargent

On December 29th, 1888, John Singer Sargent went to the Lyceum Theatre in London to watch the premiere of Shakespeare’s Macbeth starring Henry...

Catriona Miller 12 January 2025

John Singer Sargent, Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, 1892, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, UK. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Lady Agnew of Lochnaw by John Singer Sargent

Lady Agnew of Lochnaw is a masterpiece by John Singer Sargent. It portrays a Victorian woman in a bold, modern manner. Sargent combined masterful...

James W Singer 12 January 2025

A Victorian Christmas card featuring a robin in a top hat and a robin in a bonnet. The text reads: ‘Happy returns. Christmas comes but once a year.’ History

Victorian Christmas Cards: Strange or Timeless?

It’s thanks to the Victorians that the tradition of sending Christmas cards exists. The very first commercial Christmas card was sent in 1843, and...

Jenna Burns 24 December 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Roses of Heliogabalus by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Lust, Gluttony, and Sloth. Three of the Seven Deadly Sins are depicted in Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s The Roses of Heliogabalus. Many other sins are...

James W Singer 22 December 2024

Impressionism

The Dazzling Davies Sisters and Their Impressionist Art Collection

The Davies sisters grew up in a remote corner of Victorian Wales. They were religious, teetotal and never married. But these demure young women, with...

Candy Bedworth 5 December 2024