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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 14h

We had some great contributions this month, e.g. a Burne-Jones drawing for this #stainedglass window—do look at September's What's New before October's lands! We cover just about everything Victorian, plus book reviews, conference & exhibition notices etc. See www.victorianweb.org/misc/whatsne...!

Detail of some of the Athenians listening to St Paul as he preaches at Mars Hill near the Acropolis, for a three light window designed late in his career by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. c.1891. This is one of a series of ten windows in the Grade II* listed church of St Paul's, Morton, Lincolnshire, as seen in the photo next to it.

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cmillerartlife.bsky.social @cmillerartlife.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Recently started in Hastings, exhibition on 'where the land meets the sea' - great range of modern and contemp artists from Cedric Morris to Anya Gallaccio. Thematic shows are always interesting and love the idea Hastings is referencing their location www.hastingscontemporary.org/events/edge/

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It's hard to spot owls even when you hear them hooting, which may be why Jemima Blackburn explains: “Tawny Owl in this plate was a tame bird” in her book "Birds Drawn from Nature" (1862). Wild or tame, it's magnificent, anyway! victorianweb.org/art/illustra... #birds #painting

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Starting your Christmas shopping? Wish we were back in the days of Christmas gift books, works of art in themselves, like H.D. Lowry's "Make Believe" of 1896 with its cover design by Charles Robinson victorianweb.org/art/design/b...

Book cover decorated with an angelic figure seemingly seated amid scrolling vines, gilt on a dark background.

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Are you ready for the #HarvestMoon? This is Helen Allingham's lovely shimmering watercolour of 1879, "The Harvest Moon, 'globed in yellow splendour.'" Even the weary harvester, returning from the fields scythe in hand, isn't immune to its beauty. victorianweb.org/painting/all...

The tall figure of the harvester is outlined against the dark landscape behind and the evening sky. He is seen turning to see the rising moon, pausing in mid-step as he looks over his shoulder, and takes in its radiance... Its light illuminates the meadow grass and a few wildflowers beside his path.

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

#autumnequinox! Time for the leaves to fall, if they haven't already! This is John #Ruskin's marvellously evocative "Study of a Spray of Dead Oak Leaves," 1879, from the Collection of the Guild of St George, Museums Sheffield. You can feel how crisp the leaves are! victorianweb.org/painting/rus...

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Pink-Note Shelling Peas.' (c1900) The title of this picture reflects the musical vocabulary Whistler used to identify much of his work. The pink 'note' is the sitter's blouse.

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The Art Exhibitions Blog @blogexhibitions.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Chantilly is well worth a trip, only half an hour by train from the Gare du Nord in Paris; it tends to get a bit neglected by foreign visitors. And the paintings in the permanent collection don't get lent out...

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

#steepleSaturday St Margaret's, "The Marble Church," Bodelwyddan, Clwyd, N. Wales, architect John Gibson (1817-1892). It's well worth a visit. Some 80 Canadian servicemen are buried in the churchyard, because there was a military camp nearby. victorianweb.org/art/architec... (photo by Colin Price)

White church with a tall spire, nestling among the trees, the graveyard beside it just visible in the photo

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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

🖼️ Walter Crane

AUTUMN.
THE corn is cut, and on the bough Are reddest apples hanging now.
Harvest moon illustration, workers walk through field carrying harvest.

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John Vigar FSA @johnevigar.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Jesus College, Cambridge, Chapel ceiling by William Morris.

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Lucy Paquette @hammockauthor.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Topaz (1879) by Albert Joseph Moore (British, 1841-1893) Private collection

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

This was such a pleasure to read, and in many ways a corrective to the conventional view of the book -- which is actually hard-hitting, and still has much to say to us. And it's an inspiring read for older would-be writers too!

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Emory 🩶 @emory-f8.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Did you know? In the Victorian era, one extraordinarily wealthy English duke spent decades constructing a vast underground world beneath his country estate? William John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, the 5th Duke of Portland, inherited Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire. #Victorian #history

It shows a photograph of the 5th Duke of Portland.

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Something you might miss among the other delights of Norwich's Royal Arcade, the wonderful tile-panels sporting peacocks. Pevsner describes the arcade as standing "at a high point in English Arts and Crafts" victorianweb.org/art/architec...

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Victorian Studies Association of Western Canada @vsawc.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

We're really looking forward to seeing your proposals for the VSAWC and VISAWUS joint May 7-8 2027 conference on VICTORIAN BORDERS in Vancouver, Canada — due November 1! Visit vsawc.org/events/ for details and send em in, folks!

Walter Crane, Imperial Federation — Map of the World Showing the Extent of the British Empire in 1886 (supplement to The Graphic, 24 July 1886)

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Victorian Studies @victstudies.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It might not feel like it but winter is here! Our newest edition Winter 2026 (68.2) is live now on Project MUSE!

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Did you know there was a work by English architects in the very heart of Paris—a special place for Americans too? This is American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Paris, by George Edmund Street (1824-1881); completed by Arthur E. Street and Arthur Blomfield, 1882-6. victorianweb.org/art/architec...

Tall white steeple tapering into the blue sky--a lovely oasis here for weary sightseers! It's beautiful and peaceful inside, too.

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

A more home-grown beauty: Titian hair against a Morris-style background—"Oleander," in tempera, by Henry Ryland (1856-1924) victorianweb.org/painting/ryl...

Softly rippling Pre-Raphaelite hair against the pink blossoms of the background; the young woman wears a plain blue gown with gathered sleeves and a stole with a pretty stencilled border

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The artist James Smetham was #BornOnThisday 1821 in Yorkshire. A devout Methodist, he was admired by both Ruskin and Rossetti, and the latter might have helped with this painting of a gorgeously costumed, wistful-looking mandolin player victorianweb.org/painting/sme...

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

New online! If you like beautiful exotic flowers, you're sure to enjoy Diane Josefowicz's latest: a review of Sarah Bilston's "The Lost Orchid, A Story of Victorian Plunder and Obsession.'" But as you can see from the title, "orchidomania" had its downside... www.victorianweb.org/science/bota...

Cover of the book under review, with title, author and a brilliant violet and red orchid.

Colour photo of a much sought-after, deeper pink orchid, one of the lovely illustrations in the book.

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Joy Parry @joy13.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

#BookWormSat "'John,' said his mother, 'this lady is Mrs Shaw, Miss Hale's aunt. I am sorry to say, that Miss Hale's call is to wish us goodbye.' 'You are going then?' said he, in a low voice. 'Yes,' said Margaret. 'We leave tomorrow.' Elizabeth Gaskell - North and South

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Nifty Buckles Folklore @niftybuckles.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

🧛📚 #BookWormSat For #ReadABookDay, a Gothic classic: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). “Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!” Vampires, old folklore, crumbling castles and things that stir after dark. Some classics never stay buried. 🕯️🦇

Bram Stoker, Dracula, first published 1897.
Image: decorative leather-bound edition of Dracula.

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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

‘I thought I heard a voice cry, ‘Jane! Jane! Jane!’ and it was the voice of Edward Fairfax Rochester; and it spoke in pain and woe, wildly, eerily, urgently. I am coming! I cried. Wait for me! Oh, I will come! And I flew to his arms as an angel of deliverance.’ ~ JE, Charlotte Brontë. #BookWormSat

Jane Eyre in rain running over moorland, illustration.

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Dirk Puehl @wunderkammertales.eurosky.social · 05/09/2026

"The spirits I have raised abandon me, The spells which I have studied baffle me, The remedy I recked of tortured me I lean no more on superhuman aid;" (Lord Byron "Manfred") 🎨 John Martin "Manfred on the Jungfrau" (1837) #BookwormSat

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

"Now Is the Pilgrim Year Fair Autumn's Charge" by John Liston Byam Shaw, exhibited in 1904. There goes the elderly "Pilgrim Year" being escorted past a scene of glowing autumn plenty and rising mist... victorianweb.org/painting/sha...

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Alpine Club Library @alpineclublib.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Today’s @artukdotorg.bsky.social #OnlineArtExchange theme is Reflections. We're sharing this photo taken by Lizzie Le Blond - one of the pioneers of female mountaineering and a founder member of the Ladies Alpine Club

Black and white photograph of the Matterhorn reflected in a lake

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

How well the landscape suits her (or how well she suits that background!). She really seems to belong there.

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Lynne S @ghirlandia.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The Shore at Dornoch c.1880 Charles Conder Aberdeen Art Gallery

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Research Society for Victorian Periodicals @rs4vp.org · 01/09/2026

The applications portal for #RSVP2027 is now officially open! We invite all of your latest ideas on the intersections of 'Structure' and #19thC periodicals/print culture. Final proposals due 1 November. Get inspired and more information on our website: rs4vp.org/rsvp-confere...

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

It'll soon fade away! Save a bit of the #BankHolidayWeekend to check out August's What's New, with its links to book and exhibition reviews, work on architecture, paintings, illustrations, child labour, teaching choices etc. All open access! victorianweb.org/misc/whatsne...

"The Phantom in Fenwick's Cell"--an engraving illustrating Edward Bulwer Lytton's "A Strange Story," showing a man looking surprised as a ghost disappears into the darkness

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Officially opened #OTD 1850 by Queen Victoria, John Dobson's Central Station, Newcastle, with its stately frontage and compelling, curving tracks victorianweb.org/art/architec...

Long, low stone façade with great arches, seen from over the road

Platform with canopy roof, part-glazed, the tracks curving away into the open air

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The Victorian Society @thevicsoc.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Remembering Sir John Betjeman, Poet Laureate + co-founder of the Vic Soc, born #onthisday in 1906. With a long career in writing + broadcasting, he was a passionate advocate for Victorian architecture & campaigned for the conservation of historic buildings. 🧵 📷Jim Linwood CC BY 2.0

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Born #OnThisDay 1846, Alfred Sacheverell Coke, not such a well-known artist, yet he painted some very striking early Aesthetic works, like this one, "Peacocks," with its graceful floating lines, colour harmony and those wonderful birds! victorianweb.org/painting/cok...

A young woman in swirling classical robes feeding two peacocks, with a dove swooping in and a pigeon on the wall behind.

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Read the review at night-- it's the best bedtime story ever. It badly needs illustrating though!

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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

In 1891, John Singer Sargent visited Istanbul in Turkey - in this picture, he has painted the interior of the church of the Hagia Sophia and captured the early morning light reflecting off the church's gold panelling.

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

#birdsofbluesky Here's something else that says #Victorian at you: domestic stained glass! This is a door panel featuring a robin, photo ©Marilyn Madigan, great-granddaughter of the artist, John J. Jennings (1848-1919). victorianweb.org/art/stainedg...

Rondel with a robin coming to feed its young in the nest, surrounded by leaves and blossoms

Most of the door panel, filling all the space around and below the rondel with spring flowers and fresh foliage, surrounded by a colourful border

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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

‘Even now this landscape is assembling. The hills darken… This is the barrenness of harvest or pestilence. And the wife leaning out the window… Come here Come here, little one And the soul creeps out of the tree.’ ~ Louise Glück #BookWormSat 🖼️ Samuel Palmer

Harvest under Harvest Moon shining through trees, painting.

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Nothing says "Victorian" more clearly than a bit of decorative #ironwork! Here are some lovely examples, not twirly but distinctive, outside the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, #York. They were made at the Walker Iron Foundry in 1852, and still look great today victorianweb.org/art/design/c...

A smart iron fence and gate, with just enough gilding to give it some flair

Close-up of the gate with gilding on the geometric pattern of the posts

The top of the lamp-post, now with a bulb, but again the gilded finial and ornate corners give a refined decorative touch

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The Victorian Society @thevicsoc.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

We're opening our own listed building as part of this year’s @opencity-uk.bsky.social. We are based in Bedford Park in Chiswick. The building is Grade II, built in 1880, and designed by E. J. May. We are just a few mins walk from Turnham Green tube. Drop-in between 11.00 am & 4.15 pm on 12th Sept 🧵

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Emory 🩶 @emory-f8.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Did you know? In the Victorian era, a duke was blown through an underground pneumatic tube beneath London? In 1865, Richard Temple-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, participated in one of the more unusual demonstrations of transportation technology. #Victorian #history

It shows an illustration of the 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos preparing to enter a pneumatic tube.

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

#OnThisDay 1846, Edinburgh's Scott monument was inaugurated.... Och aye, a splendid occasion — and still a splendid sight! victorianweb.org/art/illustra...

Town dignitaries and bagpipers gathered for the unveiling of John Steell's seated statue of the great man himself, as shown in the Illustrated London News a little later in the month
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The whole monument today, soaring up in Princes Street Gardens, the statue glimpsed under the arch below.

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Lynne S @ghirlandia.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

At Llanfair Arthur Claude Strachan Scotland, 1865–1938

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Titania @titaniasrealm.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Watching a Moonlit Lake (1880) by Victorian painter John Atkinson Grimshaw

Painting in shades of blue and black, depicting a a lake on a full moon night. There is a tree in the foreground.

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Feeling whimsical (it's the heat!) but would really like to get one of these: Robert Anning Bell's late Victorian design for a damask tablecloth inspired by "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The Arts and Crafts Movement had its light-hearted moments! victorianweb.org/art/design/a...

Titania and Oberon receive homage from the fairies in an intricate border, with Bottom and Puck in the corner. More fairies are dancing above a further playful pattern of honeysuckle.

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

For #InternationalCatDay here's a very fine cat indeed, in Joseph Edward Southall's "Contentment" (delightfully inscribed on the back: "Portraits of Bessie & Toddie"!): victorianweb.org/painting/sou...

Elegantly dressed older woman with a large, quite magnificent cat sitting regally upright on her lap as she strokes it, as if in a reverie.

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Lucy Paquette @hammockauthor.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

The Blue Kimono (1872) by William Kay Blacklock (British, 1872-1924) Private collection

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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Goodnight. Les Souris et le Chat-Huant, The Mice and the Owl, Gustave Doré for The Fables of La Fontaine, 1867.

Illustration, giant owl in tree hollow in dark wood, ruins in background, fungi beneath the tree.

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The Victorian Society @thevicsoc.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Join us on a visit to ‘The Cathedral of Sewage.' Constructed 1859-1865, designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette and Charles Henry Driver. Inc a guided tour, a chance to see the engines ‘in steam’, a ride on the narrow gauge railway. Vintage bus pick-up at Abbey Wood Station on the day tinyurl.com/ze9a57md

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