The Victorian Age

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

The Art of Landseer, Leighton, Poynter, Alfred Stevens, Albert Moore, Orchardson, And G F Watts

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Several of the artists already mentioned in this Outline—among them being Turner, Cotman, and David Cox—were alive and working when Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, but we are not in the habit of thinking of any of these as typical artists of the Victorian era. Even the Pre-Raphaelites, whose art, as described in the last chapter, shed so much luster on the Queen’s long reign, were a group apart from the general trend of the times, and none of these painters—with the one exception of Millais in his later years—showed in his art those peculiar characteristics which we are now inclined to label broadly as ‘Victorian.’

Just as in politics the reign of Victoria was distinguished, before all things, by the growth of Democracy, so painting during this reign approached more closely than it had ever done before to popular ideals. Under Queen Victoria English painting became a homely, easily understandable art, appealing to the people by clear representation of simple themes often founded on everyday life, and almost always tinged by a sentiment perceptible and congenial to the humblest intelligence. Subject was of paramount importance, every picture told a story, and the story was usually of a simple nature that required no erudition for its comprehension, one that all who ran could read.

Of a host of pictures of this description only a few can be mentioned here. The quintessence of Victorianism may be found in the paintings of William Powell Frith (1819-1909), whose ‘Derby Day’, now in the Tate Gallery, created a sensation in 1858, and whose ‘Railway Station,’ painted four years later, is a still more dramatic assemblage of the ‘all sorts and conditions of men’ who go to make the world. No knowledge of the Old Masters or of the technique of painting is needed to enjoy Frith’s ‘Railway Station’; everybody can recognize the bridal couple being ‘seen off’ by their friends, the boy who is going to school, the new recruit taking leave of his parents, and the criminal who is being arrested at the moment when he thought to escape. This picture is not only full of the incidents which may be seen at any railway station; it is full of the simple human emotions which all have experienced and all can understand.

Very much the same qualities—though the subjects are entirely different—can be found in the works of Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A (1802-1873), who was reputed to have been Queen Victoria’s favorite painter, and was certainly one of the most popular and most successful painters of his day. Edwin Henry Landseer was born in London and was one of a family of artists. He was the third son of John Landseer, A.R.A., a painter and engraver; his brother Charles Landseer (1799-1879) also became a successful painter of historical and animal pictures; and his eldest brother, Thomas Landseer, became an expert engraver, whose prints after his brother’s pictures materially contributed to the widespread fame and popularity which Edwin Landseer enjoyed. Animals specially appealed to the young artist, and some of his earliest studies were made in a menagerie at Exeter Exchange, where the Strant Palace Hotel now stands. The first distinction he received was a premium from the Society of Arts for his drawing of ‘A Horse for Hunting,’ and at the age of fourteen he was admitted as a student to the schools of the Royal Academy, where he had already made his debut as an exhibitor with a painting of ‘The Heads of a Poynter and Puppy.’

The Victorian Age (continued)