Victorian Era Flashcards
Queen Victoria Dates
(1837-1901)
Until the 19th century, the middle-class was…
a small group represented by tradesmen, skilled craftsmen, and professionals.
In the 19th century, the aristocratic upper class…
began to lose its domination.
The new middle-class could now…
afford to decorate their homes because furniture, textiles, decorative objects were produced inexpensively and in large quantities.
THE DECORATIVE AND THE ORNAMENTAL BECAME
THE DOMINANT THEME OF ALL DESIGN.
In general, the ornamentation is not based on the usual suspects (Greek and Roman architecture) but rather
exotic designs and/or forms borrowed from human and animal figures, leaves, flowers, and complex florid arabesques.
VICTORIAN TASTE
Sense of fantasy
Favored vertical emphasis
Eclectic
Abundance of fabrics
Plethora of objects being displayed
Asymmetry rather than symmetry
Emphasis on interior
A sense of fantasy:
Re-creation of spaces in distant lands
Favored vertical emphasis in
proportions which resulted in unreasonably high ceilings and narrow and tall doors and windows
Eclectic
not to be confused with Eclecticism
Abundance of fabrics
Layers of draperies, table cloths, etc.
Sold by the yard
Plethora of objects being displayed
Interiors represent the social status of the people living there
Asymmetry rather than symmetry
(Picturesque, irregular floor plans)
Emphasis on interior
trim and plaster moldings
A love for pattern
Interior design became an official profession
CIVIL WAR (1861-1865): VICTORY OF THE NORTH
A NEW LIFESTYLE SHAPED BY INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM
UNSETTLED CONDITIONS IN URBAN CENTERS
CITIES OFFERED JOBS
IMMIGRANTS
(1820-1860 POPULATION OF CITIES LIKE PHILADELPHIA, BOSTON, & NEW YORK INCREASED 797%)
INDUSTRIALIZATION
RAILROADS, MECHANIZATION OF PRODUCTION
DISTRIBUTION OF IDEAS: JOURNALS, PATTERN BOOKS, ETC.
INTEREST IN OTHER COUNTRIES & CULTURES: OVERSEAS TRAVEL
VICTORIANISM:
IDEALIZED HOME & FEMINIZATION OF HOME SPACE
(1837-1901)
Unsettle urban conditions led to
HOME AS AN EXPRESSION OF PERSONAL TASTE AND ARTICULATION OF SOCIAL STATUS OF THE FAMILY
CONSUMERISM
RISE OF THE AMERICAN SUBURB
Industrialization led to…
EMERGENCE OF MIDDLE-CLASS MASS MARKET 1840S- 1880S
RURAL FREE DELIVERY ACT OF 1896
CATALOG-HOUSE BUSINESS
Victorianism led to…
WOMEN AS DECORATORS OF THEIR OWN HOMES
SPECIALIZATION OF SPACES
All of these historical events led to
VICTORIAN INTERIORS & FURNITURE
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts DATE + LOCATION
Philadelphia, 1871-6
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts ARCHITECT
Frank Furness
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts features
Church like architecture features
Indian Hall, Elveden Hall DATE AND LOCATION
Suffolk, England 1870
Indian Hall, Elveden Hall ARCHITECT
John Norton
Painting of a parlor - A Chelsea Interior
Who’s house, Location, date, and painter
Thomas Carlyle’s House, London, 1857
Robert Taft
Thomas Carlyle’s House, DATE + LOCATION
London, 1834-1895
Drawing room, Swan House Date and Location
Chelsea Embankment, London, 1876
Drawing room, Swan House architect
Richard Norman Shaw
Drawing room, Swan House features
No concern in matching furniture
Style
Shape
Fabric
Very informal feeling as a result
Kingscote date and location
Newport, Rhode Island, 1839
Kingscote additions, dates and architects
additions 1881 Richard Upjohn, additions by McKim, Mead, and White
Kingscote features
Huge increase of upholstery
City Hall Date and location
Philadelphia, 1872-1901
City Hall Architects
John McArthur, Jr., and Thomas U. Walter
City Hall features
Funky architectural details
Keystone in shape of animals, highly animated carvings, etc.
Charles Locke Eastlake dates
1836-1906
Charles Locke Eastlake who and what
British furniture designer and interior decorator
Hints on Household Taste (1836) 1881 (sixth edition in the US
Simplicity and restraint
Simple and functional furniture
Olana DATE + LOCATION
Near Hudson River, NY, 1874-1889
Olana architects
Calvert Vaux & Frederick E. Church
“The Centennial Exhibition did more to stimulate art industry in this country than anything else has ever done…
The specimens from abroad of furniture, carpets, hangings, and embroideries formed an opportunity for the art student such as may not occur again in many years. … the Pennsylvania Museum has collected within its art department some of the choicest articles brought from China, Japan, Turkey, Egypt, France, England, and Italy”
During the Early Victorian Period (1830-1870) “upholstered furniture became increasingly important and the upholsterers rose to a dominant position as regents of style…
The improvements in metal coil springs, made throughout the first half of the 1800s, and the fabrics produced by the new power looms led eventually to the development of all-upholstered furniture where no framework was visible. The French perfected this type, which had originally been inspired by the Orient and which suited the times when many other new comforts were becoming available. The French easy chairs (confortables), taburets (poufs), and ottomans (bornes), set the style for England and America.”
The name confortable revealed the most distinctive aspect of these completely upholstered chairs and sofas:
“[Beginning in the second half of the 19th century with Second Empire period,] large easy chairs and also sofas were often upholstered in Oriental carpet. In France these large chairs were called ‘confortables’. The back, the arms, and the seat were all sprung and nothing was now to be seen in the way of the frame, because the deep fringe which came to the ground hid the small, low feet. In the words of Henry Havard [1838-1921] in his Dictionnaire de l’Ameublement et de la Décoration (circa 1878), it was ‘La victoire de la garniture sur le bois’- ‘The victory of the covering of the wood’.”
Turkish Divan
“A piece of furniture has style when it is exactly what it ought to be, when it is suited to the purpose for which it was intended, and has that purpose unmistakably inscribed upon it. From this point of view the simplest and the richest furniture, the humblest and the stateliest dwelling, may alike be full of style. A Turkish divan, for example, is a piece of house furniture full of style, although it shows no piece of wood-work in which a definite style can be recognized, although –or perhaps precisely because– it has no fixed, sharp lined form.”
Richard Holbrook Tucker’s house location
Wiscasset, Maine
Victorian floor plans and interiors
Asymmetry preferred
Romanticized architecture
What type of books were published during this time
Etiquette books that show how someone is to act in interiors
Camp Cedars, Forked Lake date and location
Adirondacks, NY 1886
What is Camp Cedars?
Summer vacation houses with rustic furniture and decoratation
Why was Camp Cedars popular
Desire to detach from reality and dream in Victorian era
Roll-top desks were advertised in journals in early 1880’s
It was developed to serve the growing complexity of the Victorian world of business
What was the purpose of design journals in the late 1800’s
Could look into catalog, order, and be delivered
Thonet Chair
In Austria, the Thonet brothers developed the technique of using steam in pressure chambers that made it possible to to bend thin strips of solid wood into curved forms
Thonet Chair features
Strong
Light
inexpensive
Supported more leisure
Good for public spaces such as cafe and restaurants
Also used in informal residential interiors
Sofa in Rococo revival style attributed to
John Henry Belter
Sofa in Rococo style features
Proportions
Victorians favored verticality
Detailing
Enlongated
Ribbed details
More voids
Carvings stretched
Queen Victoria’s Royal Saloon Location and date
Railroad car 1869
