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victorianweb.bsky.social
Victorian Web
@victorianweb.bsky.social
140 followers 53 following 220 posts
Linking scholarship, teaching, and learning since 1994
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Did you know #Rossetti also designed book covers? Simon Cooke discusses a variety of examples—here's his striking design for his brother's 1865 translation of Dante, suitably cosmic and iconographic victorianweb.org/art/design/b... #art #design #books
A square encloses three circles with motifs of stars and leaping tongues of flame, gilded against a dark background
November 29, 2025 at 9:50 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
This part of the Reyntiens Angel Window in Southwell Minster, Notts (courtesy of Peter Hildebrand), makes a great advert for Pt 2 of the Visual Theology "Beauty and Faith" conference next May (abstracts due 11 Jan!!). www.victorianweb.org/religion/con... See our whole list of #cfps!
It shows a troubled Jesus being comforted by angels when he is being beset by the devil: "Ministering in the Wilderness" -- the feathery wings enclose the scene protectively.
November 28, 2025 at 6:00 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
We have a fascinating series on women journalists in the Lady's Pictorial, contributed by Philip Jackson. The second series was published #OnThisDay 1893, and featured a portrait of the prolific journalist, and novelist too, Eliza Lynn-Linton victorianweb.org/periodicals/...
Portrait of Queen Victoria on the front cover of an issue. Eliza Lynn-Linton, quite elderly, sitting in an elaborately carved high-backed chair, with a heavy curtain on one side and the leaves of tall house-plants on the other--very Victorian!
November 25, 2025 at 10:28 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
Here's a very fine steeple for Sunday -- St Margaret's, "The Marble Church," Bodelwyddan, Clwyd, in Wales (architect, John Gibson). And here's St Margaret herself, in one of the windows. #stainedglass victorianweb.org/victorian/ar...
(photo: Colin Price)
White church with tal slender spire, standing out against a blue sky with swirls of cloud, between banks of foliage, a small churchyard at the east. St Margaret treading down the serpent but looking very demure and calm, with a blue and red cloak over a green garment, the whole lancet bordered in a bright blue with floral motifs.
November 23, 2025 at 10:30 PM
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Our #art historian Dennis T. Lanigan is working on Walter Crane, and here's Crane's #painting of his wife soon after their marriage, with the #cat completing the picture of domestic bliss! (Credit: Leeds Art Gallery) victorianweb.org/painting/cra...
Young woman in red, leaning on a blue-and-white tiled fireplace against a tapestry background, reading a book, with a cat sitting on the rug beside her
November 22, 2025 at 10:39 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
Chilly, chilly, chilly! Though not quite as chilly as Atkinson Grimshaw's haunting figure in this mysteriously empty winter landscape! victorianweb.org/painting/gri... #painting
A lone woman in a shawl carrying a basket in a white hilly landscape, with the sky glowing palely yellow ahead, casting the same light on a hill close by. It is a path though... footmarks can be seen along the route she follows. Colour is all, here.
November 21, 2025 at 11:16 PM
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Do read our recent #review of Denae Dyck's "Biblical Wisdom and the Victorian Literary Imagination"! It's by Taten Shirley, & here's William #Blake's wonderful "When the morning stars sang together" on the cover, a brilliant choice victorianweb.org/religion/rev...
God revealing his powers to Job, with scenes of the creation to be marvelled at: a striking book cover.
November 20, 2025 at 10:28 PM
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Wonderful #Tiles in the chancel at St Oswald's, Ashbourne, part of the refitting by George Gilbert Scott. Such intricate patterns, & a fascinating study of them by Rita Wood! victorianweb.org/art/design/c...
Rows of crisscrossing slanted squares separating intricate patterns of golden flowers and foliage in studded circular frames.
November 18, 2025 at 10:04 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
"Old Edinburgh at Night" by Arthur Melville, a watercolour of 1883 -- so atmospheric, people glimpsed among the tall buildings with just one street lamp and some lights in windows, yet still an air of life -- almost phantasmagoric victorianweb.org/painting/mel... #painting #Scotland
Dark but people in Victorian dress just discernible, with bright lights making a big contrast with the shadows
November 17, 2025 at 10:46 PM
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Good morning on a #Sunday, with a view of the Newcastle Pew at St George's Church, Esher, where a young Princess used to sit when visiting her uncle Leopold in Surrey victorianweb.org/art/architec... (it has a little fireplace, note the chimney pots!))
Elegantly neoclassical gallery box-pew looking down on the nave from the liturgical south (Pevsner called the church "endearing," and it is). Church exterior with special side entrance. The royal worshippers could go straight to the pew without intermingling!
November 16, 2025 at 10:05 AM
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Unveiled #OnThisDay 1873, William Brodie's little statue of Greyfriars Bobby on this memorial drinking fountain in Edinburgh (this was the much-loved faithful pet that waited by his master's grave for the rest of his life) victorianweb.org/sculpture/br...
A little terrier sitting atop a cylindrical column with the basin of a drinking fountain around it, just on the pavement.
November 14, 2025 at 10:35 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
A Punch cartoon by John Tenniel #OnThisDay 1880: "Old King Cooal and the Fog Demon" — and the battle against pollution continues! victorianweb.org/periodicals/...
Old King Coal merrily smoking his pipe, the smoke from which spreads out over the city like a grotesque flying demon
November 13, 2025 at 10:49 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
"#November #Sunset on the Thames, Kew," by Lucien Pissarro (1863-1944). OK, it was painted in 1919, but never mind: he started off in the Victorian period! This was one of his favourite places... victorianweb.org/painting/pis...
#painting
THe Thames winding by a wintry tree and shrubs, some poplars on the other bank, all bathed in a pink light stippled with a sort of lilac-blue.
November 12, 2025 at 10:33 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
An ad on the back of an 1890's book, indicating the increasing reliance on bold visual imagery rather than info. to sell a product. It certainly catches the eye! victorianweb.org/art/design/a...
A hand reaches out through the paper amid just a few words, asking if you've washed yet (and used that particular brand of soap)! Well??!
November 10, 2025 at 7:52 AM
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"Tree of Life" window with with pomegranates and apples, made by Morris & Co., in the east wall of St David's Chapel in St Cybi's, Holyhead, Anglesey (the chapel was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott) victorianweb.org/art/stainedg... #stainedglass
Triple-paned window patterned with leaves and fruit, each pane with a white border.
November 7, 2025 at 10:17 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
#OnThisDay (6 Nov.) 1869, Blackfriars Bridge was opened by Queen Victoria on the way to opening the Holborn Viaduct. The tiles on the wall of the pedestrian underpass on the South Bank show the royal procession victorianweb.org/technology/b...
A long procession on horseback following the royal carraige, with guards of honor on either side in front of the spectators; some boats rowing past on the river below.
November 6, 2025 at 10:24 PM
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Tiling in the garden porch of William Morris's Red House, with his initial and motto ("Si Je Puis"). The house, designed by Philip Speakman Webb, & completed in 1860, is in Bexleyheath, Greater London. victorianweb.org/art/architec... #Tiles #Morris #positivevibes!
Worn-looking tiles with roses against sunburst patterns in gold, yellow blue and pastle tones — except for the one bearing the motto in old-fashioned script, with a tree in the background and the initial M for Morris in one corner
November 4, 2025 at 10:30 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
Both spectacular for different reasons: this modern photo of Brunel's Saltash Bridge, and Heath Robinson's wonderfully humorous take on the process of building it! www.victorianweb.org/technology/b... #bridges #technology #cartoons
Railway bridge spanning a river (in Plymouth) with tubular arches and suspension chains One of the arches being lowered into place on uneven, makeshift stacks of bricks, and little figures working on it all in a comically inefficient-looking way
November 2, 2025 at 10:36 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
#Fireworks already! This is Honor Appleton's illustration for Andersen's "The little Mermaid," showing her enthralled by the fireworks set off on the Prince's boat: "It was just as if all the stars of heaven were falling down upon her" victorianweb.org/art/illustra...
Fireworks raining down on the sea like stars, with the little mermaid rising to the surface of the water, holding out her arms and smiling up at them.
November 1, 2025 at 9:55 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
"A Golden Eve" by Benjamin Williams Leader (1896)--enjoying the last of autumn (when weather permits!) victorianweb.org/painting/lea... #Painting
Autumn colours on the trees reflected in a winding stream at twilight -- a rural scene.
October 30, 2025 at 10:17 PM
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Delighted to announce not only the new podcast (www.victorianweb.org/misc/podcast... — take a break, take a listen!) but Joellen Masters' very thorough and thoughtful book review on a fascinating subject (see below). Don't miss either of these!
victorianweb.org/art/costume/...
Cover of Claire Allen-Johnstone's "Dress, Feminism, and New Woman Writing" showing an elegant "New Woman" sitting in a red rocking chair with a book, but looking alert and self-assured as she meets the viewer's gaze!
October 29, 2025 at 11:50 AM
victorianweb.bsky.social
#October is slipping away: do have a look at our "What's New" for the month, before that too slips away. We have a new podcast (yes!), four new book reviews, & new artwork of all kinds. You can take a trip to Victorian New Zealand with Anthony #Trollope, too! www.victorianweb.org/misc/whatsne...
Negative of a photo giving a clue to our new podcast on Colonel Sibthorpe's elms and the Crystal Place--a very modern controversy! Queen Street in Auckland, in the late Victorian period--a bustling thoroughfare looking rather like Leeds!
October 26, 2025 at 10:52 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
#fashion They say the wasp waist (waist aesthetic slimming by puncture) is back. What goes around, comes around (or in some cases, doesn't!). From the Illustrated London News of 1902: victorianweb.org/art/costume/...
An Edwardian lady in long outdoor costume with plumed hat and tightly furled umbrella, next to an image of a shop advert for the very constricting undergarment that makes it possible for such a woman to show off her very tiny waist.
October 24, 2025 at 3:38 PM
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#OnThisDay (23 October 1854), Florence Nightingale set off fror the Crimea with a contingent of 38 nurses. Here she is, on her rounds at Scutari, commemorated by the sculptor AG Walker at the Crimean Guards War Memorial off Pall Mall, victorianweb.org/history/crim... #Crimea #sculpture #nursing
Part of a ward, with three beds occupied and two nurses and a doctor at bedsides, as Florence Nightingale goes past talking to another medical officer -- one of the bronze relief plaques below the ensemble of three-dimensional figures sculptures on this large memorial.
October 23, 2025 at 3:52 PM
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Hopkins's "Spring and Fall" brings to mind the melancholy atmsphere of Millais's "#Autumn Leaves" ("Margaret, are you grieving/Over Goldengrove unleaving?... Ah! as the heart grows older/It will come to such sights colder...") victorianweb.org/authors/hopk...
Girls of different ages around a great pile of fallen leaves, still emptying more leaves on to it, on a dark evening. ·
October 22, 2025 at 9:37 PM