TATE COLLECTION


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Victorian 

Blanket term referring to almost every aspect of British life and culture during Queen Victoria's long reign from 1837 to 1901. In relation to social behaviour, art and design however, it carries connotations of stuffiness, repressiveness and rigid devotion to tradition. In art specifically the term is perhaps exemplified in the genre painting which provides an extraordinary panorama of the life of the period, including Rural Naturalism and Social Realism, but Victorian genre perhaps particularly associated with the sentimental and reassuring work of Wilkie and his followers.
 

Sir David Wilkie, The First Ear-Ring, 1834-5, exhibited 1835
Sir David Wilkie
The First Ear-Ring
1834-5, exhibited 1835
 
William Mulready, The Last In, 1834-5, exhibited 1835
William Mulready
The Last In
1834-5, exhibited 1835
 
Sir John Everett Millais, Bt, Speak! Speak!, 1895
Sir John Everett Millais, Bt
Speak! Speak!
1895