The Victorian Web

A #Monday washday special! John Singer Sargent's "La Biancheria" of 1910. These wonderful "whites" are anything but white, composed of sun, shade, an inspired eye and vigorous brushstrokes
https://victorianweb.org/painting/sargent/watercolors/9.html

When the weather's like this, there's nothing for it but..... (John Frederick Lewis, "The Siesta," 1876) https://victorianweb.org/painting/lewis/paintings/3.html #painting #heatwave

Greetings in #June, with 'June borders of Lupin and iris in the borders of Munstead Wood' (frontispiece to "Gardens for Small Country Houses" ) in an essay on Gertrude Jekyll as a pioneer garden designer https://victorianweb.org/victorian/art/parks/jekyll/biography.html
#gardens

Planning your staycation for the summer? Actually, there are plenty of lovely spots to choose from. This is William Henry Millais' watercolour, of 1861: "Little Thornwick Bay near Flamborough Head." https://victorianweb.org/painting/millaiswh/drawings/8.html #painting #nature

"See, banks and brakes / Now, leavèd how thick! lacèd they are again / With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes / Them; "
(Gerard Manley Hopkins, Sonnet 51, "Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord") https://victorianweb.org/authors/hopkins/hopkins14.html

William De Morgan's design for #tiles, with some filled in with watercolour, the sort of pattern he used so spectacularly at LeightonHous -- from the V & A Collections
https://victorianweb.org/art/design/dem
organ/leighton.html

#Heatwave continues!!! "Angel holding the Sun," by William Morris, at St James's Church, Stavely, Cumbria. Photo: P. Neil Ralley #stainedglass https://victorianweb.org/art/stainedglass/morris/14.html

"A Hymn to Spring," an oil-painting by Cecil Gordon Lawson (1849-1882), from 1871-72. Daffs, blossom, a single dove flying... looks like a March day in the home counties (it was painted in Berkshire). #painting https://victorianweb.org/victorian/painting/lawson/paintings/3.html

"The Wreck of the Anglo Saxon, April 1863," by the Danish painter Anton Melbye (1818-1875), and John William Bottomley (1816-1900)—much of the drama carried by Bottomley's panicked #horses #painting https://victorianweb.org/painting/bottomley/3.html

#heatwave Feels like flaming June but we're not there yet! This is "Clytie Turning Towards the Sun," by Thomas Matthews Rooke, RWS, 1884. No sunflowers around yet, but some kind of transformation is definitely happening! https://victorianweb.org/painting/rooke/paintings/10.html

Harold H. Piffard gives a rather optimistic idea of space travel in this cosy cabin in a "sea-liner of the stars": Simon Cooke examines illustrators of the early days of #sci-fi (be warned: others had scarier takes on the subject!!). https://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/misc/scienceromance.html #illustration

Plaster relief, "Bluebell," 1836, by Richard Westmacott, Jr (1799-1872)--praised in The Art Journal for its "flowing wavy grace" #sculpture #flowers #spring Bluebells are just coming into full flower now!
https://victorianweb.org/sculpture/westmacottjr/2.html

#Wood for Wednesday! Mahogany in James Simpson's Central Methodist Church at St Saviourgate, York. Notice individual holes for communion cups on the altar rails. https://victorianweb.org/art/architecture/simpson/2.html

Wishing a Happy #Easter to all who celebrate, with this lovely Noli Me Tangere window attributed to Jean-Baptiste Capronnier, after 1884, at St Paul's, Heslington, Yorkshire (photo: Rita Wood). #stainedglass https://victorianweb.org/art/stainedglass/capronnier/3.html

Born #OnThisDay 1825. the artist James Collinson, once engaged to Christina Rossetti. The title of one of his paintings, "For Sale," has aroused some controversy: was the girl at the bazaar, herself, seen as being in the market for marriage? https://victorianweb.org/painting/collinson/paintings/12.html

In case you need an excuse to visit the Cotswolds—here's a wonderful William De Morgan exhibition coming up at Moreton-in-Marsh—all those delightfully quirky animal designs! Catch it while you can (talk on Friday + 26-29th this month)! Details: https://victorianweb.org/art/design/demorgan/kinghams.html

"Spring" (1864) by Frederick Walker shows a girl with (probably) her brother, gathering primroses at just this time of year. Walker was a painter and illustrator associated with the Idyllic School and the St John's Wood Clique.
https://victorianweb.org/painting/walker/paintings/16.html #painting

.the darkening air
Thrills with a sense of the triumphing night —
Night with her train of stars
And her great gift of sleep. [W.E. Henley]
And here's a painting inspired by these lines: E R Hughes's "Night with Her Train of Stars" https://www.victorianweb.org/painting/hugheser/drawings/21.html #painting #poetry

RE: @victorianweb@mastodonapp.uk

Reposting this because a line break spoiled the link. Do take a look at, if curious! Thanks @michaelmeckler@mastodonapp.uk for letting us know.

Charles and Catherine Dickens (formerly, Hogarth) spent their week-long honeymoon here at Chalk House, Kent, immediately after their wedding at St Luke's, Chelsea #Onthisday 1836 https://victorianweb.org/painting/haslehust/14.html

It's that time of month again! Do take a look at our monthly round-up in What's New -- lots of fascinating new work. For example, who was this under-sung heroine of the Victorian age, and what does she have to do with the later scene? Clue: 4th para. https://www.victorianweb.org/misc/whatsnew.html

Born in Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey #OTD 1830, Eadweard James Muybridge, famous for having captured the earliest scenes of horses and other animals (including humans) in motion. https://victorianweb.org/photos/muybridge/bio.html
#photography #film

James Jebusa Shannon's touching portrait of a flower-girl with her baby--he'd spotted her on the sea-front at Eastbourne. The picture, of 1900, caused a sensation at the Academy; it was bought by the Chantrey Bequest, and hung in the Tate https://victorianweb.org/painting/shannonjj/paintings/4.html #painting #motherhood

An illustration by the artist Jemima Blackburn: "The High Hills are a refuge for the Wild Goats; and the Rocks for the Conies" (Psalm CIV, 18). Among Blackburn's friends were Landseer, Ruskin & Millais https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/blackburn/5.html #illustration #womensart #animals

Since it's May... celebrating a favourite Victorian cartoonist, Phil May: here he is, at his easel, with another of his drawings, this one of Gladstone "in the house" looking distinctly unimpressed by the proceedings! https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/may/spielmann.html
#cartoons

Designed by William Morris, John Henry Dearle and Philip Webb, "The Forest," a woven silk and wool tapestry (1887). This comes from a review of a past exhibition at the V&A. Can you spot the fox and the hare? Anything else (besides the lion!)? https://victorianweb.org/art/design/artsandcrafts/capet.html

Walter Crane's waterolour "A Herald of #Spring" is perfect for the season but rather sad today because he died #OnThisDay 1915, after creating so much inspired work in so many media. The #stainedglass of "The Rising Sun of Righteousness" was also designed by him. https://victorianweb.org/art/stainedglass/crane/1.html

Can't let the day go without remembering that #Wordsworth was born #OTD 1770. One of the flowers carved on his memorial stone would be the celandine, which is out now: "There is a flower that shall be mine, /
'Tis the little Celandine." https://victorianweb.org/sculpture/wool
ner/32.html

Love the expressions on the faces here, the little details, and the story being (only partly) told: "The Return of the Runaway," by Joseph Clark (1834-1926). c.1862. https://victorianweb.org/painting/clarkjoseph/paintings/4.html It asks for and surely elicits the viewer's engagement. #painting

Died #OTD 1949, the sculptor Margaret Giles, whose bas-relief, "Labourers in the Vineyard," can be seen in Regent's University, London. As with faith, so with studies: it's never too late to reap the rewards of labour! https://victorianweb.org/sculpture/giles/9.html
#sculpture

The month's nearly over! Do take a peek at our What's New page to see what's come into our site lately—from essays shared with the Pre-Raphaelite Society, to Victorian #sculpture in Australia, & George Meredith & androgyny. And who's this handsome young man?! https://www.victorianweb.org/misc/whatsnew.html

#stgeorgesday Here he's about to slay a reptilian dragon in Louis Steinheil's Victorian-era fresco in St George's Chapel, in the newly restored Notre Dame Cathedral. This splendid page of photos was contributed by Parisian contributor Laurent Bury
https://victorianweb.org/art/architectu
re/vld/4.html

If you enjoyed the Oxford and Cambridge Boat-Race earlier this month, you might like to compare it with the Victorian ones: this is what it looked like in 1877, when it was, amazingly, a dead-heat! https://victorianweb.org/history/sports/14.html

Greatly enjoyed this new piece on "Oscar Wilde, Traveller to Italy; Admirer of India," by Rita Severi of the University of Verona, with its material from Wilde's editorship of "The Women's World" https://victorianweb.org/authors/wilde/
india.html

Thinking of travelling at Easter? Here are some possibilities if you're going to India, a bit dated now, but some still available. Not sure about the top right.... What would suit you? https://victorianweb.org/history/empire/india/121.html

The new National Portrait Gallery opened to the public on 4 April 1896, and #OnThisDay that year Linley Sambourne greeted it warmly in this Punch #cartoon: "Welcome! Come in, Ladies and Gentlemen! Glad to give you a decent roof over your heads at last!" https://victorianweb.org/periodicals/punch/70.html

What do you know about Adam Bede's dog? Apparently, even without a tail to wag, he plays an important part in George Eliot's novel! Do read Dipyaman Bhowmick's review of John MacNeill Miller's "The #Ecological Plot: How Stories Gave Rise to a Science" https://www.victorianweb.org/science/environment/miller.html

Ah, the dynamic author! Despite noting that depth is apt to be sacrificed to breadth in this wide-ranging study, our reviewer, Philip Allingham, can't help falling under the spell of Mark Conrad's "#Dickens The Enchanter"! https://victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/reviews/conrad.html

@Infoseepage@mastodon.social Thank you for drawing attention to them!