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Spanning nearly 64 years in the 19 th century, the long, prosperous reign of Britain's Queen Victoria was marked by significant industrial development, massive social upheaval, and a sumptuous Victorian style that renounced the mass-produced aesthetics brought on by the Industrial Revolution. Victorian prints of paintings and original
art produced during the era exemplify the exuberance and opulence that have come to be associated with Victorian style . The ornate and lavish Victorian style influenced all branches of art and design, including architecture, decorative art, fashion, and the fine arts. The richness and depth of colors of Victorian prints of Victorian realist paintings represent a revolt against the sterile, monotonous art that initially sprang from Britain's rapid industrialization.
Victorian style in art is characterized by a strong adherence to realism and truthfulness to nature, infused with a spiritual or moral message. The prime movers of Victorian style in art were the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group formed in 1848 in London by artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Milliais and William Holman Hunt, in resistance to the principles of art that had become pervasive since the time of Italian Renaissance artist Raphael, one of the Old
Masters. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood sought a return to genuine art that was painted directly from nature. The naturalistic and brightly colored Victorian style was defined by a meticulous attention to detail and a fascination with pseudo-medieval subjects.
By the second wave of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, the highly naturalistic Victorian style had given way to a more eclectic art that carried a strong symbolist influence. Fantastical and chivalric themes in late-Pre-Raphaelite art demonstrate an increasing permeation of myth, symbols, and ambiguity in Victorian art.
Victorian prints of Victorian style paintings depict fairies, women, nudes, landscapes, and genre scenes suffused with bright colors, literary symbolism, and fine attention to detail. The romantic English countryside, brightly-lit scenes of rural life, and faces of beautiful women that beguile and mystify— Victorian style was a celebration of romance and passion in a newly industrialized society. While dismissed by some critics as lacking in compositional grace and tonal subtlety, Pre-Raphaelite Victorian style spoke to an appreciative art-consuming audience who saw exquisite beauty in the bold lines, rich hues, and worthy subjects.
Victorian prints of original Victorian art and Victorian style art bear the rich, narrative quality of artworks produced during the era. Victorian prints reveal the Pre-Raphaelite belief in the uplifting and ennobling purpose of art. Tinged with spiritual and moral messages, Victorian prints of Victorian art portray the sentimentality and class distinction that prevailed in the era. High-quality Victorian prints paint a fascinating picture of the aesthetics, mores, and social dynamics both compromised and energized by sudden industrial development. Some Victorian prints available in the market are printed from contemporary Victorian style paintings that draw artistic inspiration from Victorian-era garden and children's books, while others are excellent reproductions of late 19 th -century Victorian lithograph prints. Victorian-themed portrait
drawings and realism paintings are also popular sources of Victorian prints.
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