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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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victorianweb.bsky.social
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
victorianweb.bsky.social
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
victorianweb.bsky.social
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
victorianweb.bsky.social
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
victorianweb.bsky.social
"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
victorianweb.bsky.social
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
victorianweb.bsky.social
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
victorianweb.bsky.social
#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
victorianweb.bsky.social
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
victorianweb.bsky.social
On this day 1805, the Battle of Trafalgar—& on its anniversary in 1813, #Liverpool's Nelson Monument was unveiled. Sculpted by Sir Richard Westmacott & designed by Matthew Cotes Wyatt, it shows the horror of battle as well as the glory of victory. victorianweb.org/sculpture/we...
#sculpture
Dramatic ensemble with the hailing of the hero, but canon, captured flag, prisoners in chains --and a skeleton peering out above the text, "Every Man to do his Duty" Figure of the skeleton, with a frayed ship's rope beside it
October 21, 2025 at 9:43 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
"From My Window," an illustration by Frederick Sandys—so many artworks of Victorian times show women looking out of windows, longing for love—and a world beyond their restricted lives victorianweb.org/painting/wom... #Victorian #illustration
Engraving of a young woman with her head slightly inclined, a few flowers in one hand, looking down yearningly from a half-open window
October 18, 2025 at 9:48 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
Turner, unprepossessing in himself, adds a final touch to his painting on varnishing day at the Royal Academy -- an endearing glimpse of his genius in action, caught by a lesser artist, William Parrott: victorianweb.org/painting/mis... #painting
The top-hatted Turner is only about the height of the painting itself. Two other men stand nearby, one with a palette, the other pointing to the painting in its heavy gilt frame. A bowl and a couple of cloths lie crumpled on the floor.
October 17, 2025 at 9:43 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
Lymington Iron Works on the Tyne, by Thomas Allom, c.1835 — a powerful reminder of the early days of #industrialisation — and environmental #polllution on a vast scale victorianweb.org/art/illustra...
Figures of workmen dwarfed by the dramatic structures of the smelting and blast furnaces, and billowing clouds of smoke in the dim light
October 16, 2025 at 9:22 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
Want to know "Where the Victorians Got Their Reading"? Another excellent new review on our site, by Sheldon Goldfarb, looks at Frederick Nesta's collection of essays on the subject. Clue: it wasn't just at railway bookstalls! victorianweb.org/authors/revi...
Cover of the book, showing customers, young and old, buying books at the shop counter like any other commodity.
October 12, 2025 at 9:40 PM
victorianweb.bsky.social
Born #Onthisday 1867 in Leeds, and died in Bournemouth in 1935, Francis Mawson Rattenbury's architectural career in #Canada was absolutely stellar. Here's his BC Provincial Legislature of 1893-98 victorianweb.org/art/architec... #architecture
Portrait of the pleasant-looking middle-aged architect View of the building with its impressive domed central structure, and a fountain in front of it.
October 11, 2025 at 9:37 PM