Historical Background

Portrait of the Family of Queen Victoria

Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, 1805-1873)

1846

Oil on canvas

Royal Trust Collection, London, England

The years from 1830 to 1914 are described as "Victorian" after the reign of Queen Victoria, who ruled England from 1837 until her death in 1901. The styles, fashions, and tastes associated with the Victorian era emerged shortly before Queen Victoria’s accession and continued beyond her death to about the beginning of World War I. 

Factory in nineteenth-century England.

Queen Victoria’s reign witnessed great economic, political, and social changes. The Industrial Revolution, which brought about factory production and the use of steam-powered machinery, dominated the culture and economy of both Europe and America during the nineteenth century. Large factories equipped with steam-powered machines appeared in every major Western nation. The mechanization of various industries and mass production greatly reduced the cost of household furnishings, making them available to a broader segment of the population.

During Victoria’s reign, the middle class emerged as a powerful force in society, acquiring immense wealth and exerting a strong influence on government. This new class provided a sizable and eager market for the flood of manufactured goods that appeared as a result of mechanization.

Electric streetcars on Fourth Avenue, looking south

from 13th Street, New York City, 1906.  Byron

Company, New York, N.Y.  Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY.

Victorian America experienced similar economic, technological, and cultural developments. Cities in the North became major industrial centers with large-scale factories manufacturing the goods and products that were eagerly consumed by a rapidly growing population. Improvements in transportation such as the opening of canals and the creation of railroads enabled these products to be shipped to distant parts of the country. Technology advanced at a rapid pace and new inventions appeared regularly, including various types of steam-powered machinery, the telegraph, the telephone, electric streetcars, the steam locomotive, the steam boat, electric lighting, and the combustion engine. The Civil War, which brought about an end to slavery, resulted in the industrialization of the South.

"The Crystal Palace from the Northeast" from Dickinson's

Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851, 1854.

Americans continued to rely on English and French fashions during the nineteenth century.  The newest styles from Europe were disseminated in the United States through publications such as architecture and furniture pattern books, trade periodicals, fashion magazines, and home decorating guides.  Another showcase for the latest design developments was the international exhibition, or world’s fair, the first of which was the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851. The importation of French and English furniture, porcelain, silver, and decorative objects also facilitated the transmission of European styles to the United States.

A multitude of styles influenced the design of household furnishings during the Victorian years, giving rise to a description of furniture and other decorative arts of the period as "eclectic." Many of these styles were simultaneously fashionable, providing the homeowner with a variety of options from which to choose.

View of a New York parlor, 1854. Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-
Room Companion, Boston, Saturday, November 11, 1854.

The nineteenth-century interest in history gave rise to a revival of styles from the past.  Designers and craftsmen borrowed forms and decorative motifs associated with various historical periods, from ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian through Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque to Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI. Historically based "revival styles," including Grecian, Gothic, Elizabethan, Rococo, Renaissance, Neo-Grec, and Louis XVI, were particularly popular during the early and mid-Victorian years. Each revival loosely imitated a past style and tended to represent a creative re-interpretation of historical forms and ornament. Motifs from two or more revival styles were frequently combined in a single object. Until the final decades of the nineteenth century, attempts were rarely made to accurately reproduce furniture or other decorative arts objects from previous eras.

"Drawing-room in Modern Gothic."  A. Kimbel and J. Cabus,
New York City, New York.  Harriet Prescott Spofford,
Art Decoration Applied to Furniture (New York, 1878).

During the mid-nineteenth century in England, a reaction against the excesses of revivalism emerged among a small group of architects and designers who rebelled against elaborate decoration, claiming it tended to obscure the structure of furniture and other decorative arts objects.  In an attempt to reform design, they established a set of precepts that included an honest use of materials, a frank expression of structure, and a restrained application of ornament. The design reform movement advocated a variety of approaches and produced a number of stylistic alternatives. The architect Charles Lock Eastlake promoted the use of medieval forms and construction techniques. The Aesthetic Movement, which began in England in the 1860s as a small group of artists and writers who championed the philosophy of "art for art’s sake," attempted to bring about reform by introducing artistic principles to the design of furniture and other domestic furnishings. The movement drew inspiration primarily from Japanese art and design. These and other attempts at design reform culminated in the emergence of the Arts and Crafts Movement, which brought about a return to hand craftsmanship and a revival of the medieval guild system.

At the turn of the twentieth century, a number of progressive architects and designers in France reacted against the dependence on historical styles and advocated creating a universal design vocabulary that would release design from the shackles of the past. These designers turned toward nature for inspiration and adopted sinuous lines, asymmetrical forms, and decoration of stylized flowers, leaves, and vines or abstract whiplash curves. The new style that emerged was labeled "Art Nouveau," which translates into "New Art."

All these styles and design movements crossed the Atlantic to the United States, where they were eagerly adopted by architects, designers, craftsmen, and artisans who, while following the fashions from abroad, created uniquely American interpretations.