art in the victorian era

21 May 2013

Art in the Victorian Era

The Victorian Era was full of many artistic movements some being realism,

impressionism, and post-impressionism. In these times the art world flourished and

changed greatly. Before the impressionist there were many restrictions to what art had to

be what it looked like and the colors that needed to be used and the subject. During the

Victorian era the Catholic Church was in rule of most everything that including art this is

why most of the art during this period was based of historical or biblical terms. From the fourteen hundreds to the eighteen hundreds realism was a very popular

form of art. Realism was a renaissance- influenced for of art, since during the renaissance

everything began to flourish so did the art it went from being flat and two-dimensional to

actually having depth form and shape. Realism was very popular for hundreds of years

and people became used to having paintings look really realistic so that why when a new

form of art came along it wasn’t accepted right away. Since the church controlled a lot of

what was happening during this period the paintings had to be about historical biblical or

mythological references. Some of the other standards that each painting had to meet was

that it needed to be really tall most came around to 6 feet tall and the colors they used

where dark not really vibrant colors. Other people who purchased paintings in this time

were rich people. Paintings were really expensive and considered a luxury so only the

upper class were able to purchase them. The upper class would hire a painter to paint

portraits of them some in a heroic pose and others with a mother holding their child. It

wasn’t until the 1860’s that a group of French painters gave their own interpretations on

art that would break away from the typical outlook on art and change it greatly. Impressionist was the term used to describe these artist, “They tried to free

themselves of rules and traditions and to portray their immediate impression.”(Shafa,

2005). When the impressionist first started out no one really accepted their painting styles

because they were so accustomed to having paintings look realistic and being about the

church. The church did not take these artist seriously because they did not agree witht

their ways, but in time the movement caught on