Date

Cultural Events

Political Events and Social Legislation

1878

Alma Tadema's A Sculptor's Model causes controversy when exhibited in Liverpool, arousing the indignation of sections of the general public.
Frederic Leighton is elected President of the Royal Academy.
Ruskin accuses Whistler of flinging a pot of paint in the public's face'; Whistler sues Ruskin for libel and wins

1879

Annie Swynnerton and Susan Isabel Dacre found the Manchester Society of Women Painters.
Thomas Edison perfects electric light

Zulu War in South Africa

1880

Outbreak of First Boer War;
Gladstone re-elected Prime Minister

1882

British invasion of Egypt

1885

W.T. Stead publishes The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon, his exposé of child prostitution in the Pall
Mall Gazette.
A letter signed 'A British Matron' is sent to
The Times protesting against the nude and the threat it presented to public morals. A national debate on the nude ensues. JC Horsley, RA, is the suspected author.

Criminal Law Amendment Act: the age of sexual consent for girls is raised to 16 years; new penalties against incest and male homosexuality are implemented
National Vigilance Association is founded

1886

New English Art Club, a francophile alternative to the Royal Academy, is founded

Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts of the 1860s

1887

Camera Club founded in London, primarily for gentleman amateurs.
Invention of celluloid film

Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee

1889

Indecent Advertisements Act

1890

Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is published

1891

Public outcry when Calderon's St Elizabeth is bought by the Chantrey Bequest

1892

Rudolf Blind, the Belgian-born painter is put on trial for exhibiting a picture alleged to be 'obscene' and 'wicked'; the judge, taking into consideration 'artistic expression', throws the case out of court

1893

World's Fair, Chicago: the renowned physical culturist, Eugen Sandow appears to wide acclaim.
The Lumière brothers invent the Cinématograph.
Women allowed to study from the partially-draped model at the RA

1894

The first 'Kinetoscope Parlour' opens in Oxford Street on 14 April

1895

Oscar Wilde is found guilty of 'acts of gross indecency with other male persons' and is sentenced to two years hard labour

1896

Projected film is first introduced in Britain; the Lumière Brother's Cinématograph and the British inventor Robert W. Paul's Theatrograph are showing at theatres in Leicester Square. Sir Edward Poynter elected President of the Royal Academy following the deaths of Leighton and Millais
National Portrait Gallery opens in Trafalgar Square

1897

The National Gallery of British Art opens at Millbank, London (later known as the Tate Gallery, now Tate Britain)

Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee

1899

Outbreak of the Second Boer War

1900

International Exhibition in Paris. William Goscombe John's bronze sculpture, A Boy At Play is among the exhibits

1901

Death of Queen Victoria at Osborne House, Isle of Wight.