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Dante Gabriel Rossetti's drawing room at No. 16 Cheyne Walk, 1882, by Henry Treffry Dunn.

Victorian decorative arts refers to the style of decorative arts during the Victorian era. Victorian design is widely viewed as having indulged in a grand excess of ornament. The Victorian era is known for its interpretation and eclectic revival of historic styles mixed with the introduction of middle east and Asian influences in furniture, fittings, and interior decoration. The Arts and Crafts movement, the aesthetic movement, Anglo-Japanese style, and Art Nouveau style have their beginnings in the late Victorian era and gothic period.

Victorian gender values and the home

The subtleties of decoration within the home were a part of Victorian life. The interior design of the home was there to make family life more comfortable and to be architecturally pleasing. Victorian country life resulted in many enlargements and improvements of homes and the items within, as new domestic values of loving the home became popular. According to John Gloag, magazines, books, and newspapers were aimed at all wealth classes so they could decide upon the designs and furniture they would use in their homes. Katherine Wheeler has remarked that John Ruskin's ideas about about how emotions influence people’s lives pertained also to design and architecture, as emotions influenced the way people saw interior design. She further states that if the wrong emotion and value was entwined into the architecture, the design would prove to be problematic as the Victorians envisioned beauty in its most natural form.

File:Comfort and Elegance.jpg

|Victorian man displaying "Comfort before elegance" while the woman must tend to other activities

Per Kevin O'Brien, architecture allows the interior design to be brought forth, which allows the entire home to encompass the feelings of its inhabitants. Victorian men and women would follow this principle, as well as others, in order to preserve the maintenance of the home. Some would only keep items in their house that were useful or beautiful, as Victorians valued utility, efficiency, and did not want to waste anything. Many preferred the simple tools and a simple life, and in relation, they chose to use items that were “perfectly bare or ornament” rather than machine made ornaments.

Many people of this age also utilized different rooms for the different values they had. For example, the Drawing Room may have been used on Sundays (whether religious connotation or not) which would house a large amount of people.

Other sex specific values related to the home were also present during this time. For women, they were supposed to use the bedrooms and clean them accordingly and “throw the bed clothing over the foot of the bed and open the bedroom window when she leaves the room so air passed through”. Men would typically do nothing in the bedroom, as that was often left to the services of the housemaid or the women who lived there, which resulted in the men receiving an untidy connotation. According to research and observations of the Victorian home life, women would not even expect the men to do anything or expect any help from them for their absurdities. They were meant to create the mess and work for the others and to not do it themselves.

Influences

Oscar Wilde

Poet and playwright Oscar Wilde is known for his involvement with the rise of aestheticism and advocated Victorian decorative individualism in speech, fiction, and essay-form. His notion of cultural enlightenment through visual cues has been compared by scholars to Alexandre von Humboldt, who maintained that imagination was not the Romantic figment of scarcity and mystery but rather something anyone could begin to develop with other methods, including organic elements in pteridomania.

By changing one’s immediate dwelling quarters, one changed one’s mind as well[]; Wilde believed that the way forward in cosmopolitanism began with as a means eclipse the societally mundane, and that such guidance would be found not in books in classrooms, but by Platonic epistemology. An aesthetic shift in the home’s Victorian decorative arts reached its highest outcome in the literal transformation of the individual into cosmopolitan, as Wilde was regarded and noted among others in his tour of America.

For Wilde, however, the inner meaning of Victorian decorative arts is fourfold: one must first reconstruct one’s inside so as to grasp what is outside in terms of both living quarters and mind, whilst hearkening back to von Humboldt on the way to Plato so as to be immersed in contemporaneous cosmopolitanism, thereby ideally becoming oneself admirably aesthetical.

John Ruskin

The most prominent art critic during the Victorian era was John Ruskin, who published two major works on architecture in addition to numerous lectures on the subject. For Ruskin, architecture was not merely a building, but a work of art, and should be treated as such. This distinction was defined by the emotion the architect put into the building. This carried on in his opinions on architectural style. Ruskin encouraged the Gothic style of architecture, which he believed had the most emotion, and discouraged the classical style, believing the focus on proportion stifled its emotional impact. Perhaps most important to Ruskin was the idea that architecture could inspire action and ultimately change society. Ruskin’s ideas, while popular, were also criticized by architect Robert Kerr, who objected to Ruskin’s anti-professional view of architecture. Nevertheless Ruskin was so influential that some buildings were said to be ‘Ruskinian’ in nature; Ruskin was also able to shine light on lesser known artists and designers to sway trends.

Architecture

Main article: Victorian architecture

The Commandant drawing room, Port Arthur, Tasmania.

Interior decoration and design

Interior decoration and interior design of the Victorian era are noted for orderliness and ornamentation. A house from this period was idealistically divided in rooms, with public and private space carefully separated. The parlour was the most important room in a home and was the showcase for the homeowners where guests were entertained. A bare room was considered to be in poor taste, so every surface was filled with objects that reflected the owner's interests and aspirations. The dining room was the second-most important room in the house. The sideboard was most often the focal point of the dining room and very ornately decorated.

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  Vanderbilt Mansion, living room
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  1879, parlor of Emlen Physick Estate, 1048 Washington Street, New Jersey
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  Lanhydrock House, drawing room
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  Dunedin Club, interior, billiard room

Rooms

Displayed across varying Victorian-style homes, large windows characterized what the people preferred in their homes and were seen as bringing character to each room regardless of the house's size. Furnishing the home became a haphazard event and the attention to cleanliness and comfort in the homes rose, especially seen in the relaxing designs. The master bedroom, noted as the “suite”, adorned masterful details, from wood working to cloth designs. Cottage style furniture became popular and the middle class especially took into these designs as they were often inexpensive, yet true to Victorian style.

The Drawing Room

This room promoted domestic happiness and morality as it received the most fashionable updates and was kept tidy and neat. The room adorned high ceilings and contained a long bay window to look from, so people could be relaxed and enjoy the utter happiness that filled the space. Some of these rooms were darker and more ‘manly’, and others were more ‘feminine’ with light-colors, as were the values that the Victorians upheld. Drawing rooms, as claimed through Judith Flanders, could be decorated in a plethora of ways, because each individual had personal preferences to which were utilized.

Walls and ceilings

The choice of paint color on the walls in Victorian homes was said to be based on the use of the room. Hallways that were in the entry hall and the stair halls were painted a somber gray so as not to compete with the surrounding rooms. Most people marbleized the walls or the woodwork. Also on walls it was common to score into wet plaster to make it resemble blocks of stone. Finishes that were either marbleized or grained were frequently found on doors and woodwork. "Graining" was meant to imitate woods of higher quality that were more difficult to work. There were specific rules for interior color choice and placement. The theory of “harmony by analogy” was to use the colors that lay next to each other on the color wheel. And the second was the “harmony by contrast” that was to use the colors that were opposite of one another on the color wheel. There was a favored tripartite wall that included a dado or wainscoting at the bottom, a field in the middle and a frieze or cornice at the top. This was popular into the 20th century. Frederick Walton who created linoleum in 1863 created the process for embossing semi-liquid linseed oil, backed with waterproofed paper or canvas. It was called Lincrusta and was applied much like wallpaper. This process made it easy to then go over the oil and make it resemble wood or different types of leather. On the ceilings that were 8–14 feet the color was tinted three shades lighter than the color that was on the walls and usually had a high quality of ornamentation because decorated ceilings were favored.

Wallpaper

Wallpaper and wallcoverings became accessible for increasing numbers of householders with their wide range of designs and varying costs. This was due to the introduction of mass production techniques and, in England, the repeal in 1836 of the Wallpaper tax introduced in 1712.

Wallpaper was often made in elaborate floral patterns with primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) in the backgrounds and overprinted with colours of cream and tan. This was followed by Gothic art inspired papers in earth tones with stylized leaf and floral patterns. William Morris was one of the most influential designers of wallpaper and fabrics during the latter half of the Victorian period. Morris was inspired and used Medieval and Gothic tapestries in his work. Embossed paper were used on ceilings and friezes.

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  Artichoke wallpaper, by John Henry Dearle for Morris & Co., circa 1897 (Victoria and Albert Museum).
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  Acanthus wallpaper, 1875
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  Snakeshead printed textile, 1876
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  Peacock and Dragon woven wool furnishing fabric, 1878
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  Design for Windrush printed textile, 1881–83
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  Detail of Woodpecker tapestry, 1885

Fireplaces

Fireplaces were a popular household item to have in Victorian homes and they represent a form of comfort for Victorians. Poking the fire was seen as a pastime. Homes would have two sets of fireplace pokers. One set of shovels and tongs would be made of very decorative steel and brass and were not intended to be used to poke the fire, as they were intended to be the main decoration. Another less decorated fire poker was actually used for the poking purposes. They were also highly decorated with mantel pieces and clocks made of marble with many ornaments and decorations for show. While they had decorative properties, they also had comfort purposes. In "Victorian Comfort: A Social History of Design", John Gloag remarks that fireplaces were set in a room that would warm the room, yet also scorch the people in that room because of uneven heat distribution.

Furniture

There was not one dominant style of furniture in the Victorian period. Designers rather used and modified many styles taken from various time periods in history like Gothic, Tudor, Elizabethan, English Rococo, Neoclassical and others. The Gothic and Rococo revival style were the most common styles to be seen in furniture during this time in history. The Victorian Era furniture managed to distinguish itself by having certain aesthetics. It heavily avoided the Gothic style . Darker furniture started to become increasingly prevalent in contrast to the lighter ones because of the alteration away from the Gothic style. Furniture during this time was made in the darkest wood. Folks primarily being accustomed to Gothic-like styles made the darker furniture during this time more suitable. These styles of heavy designs were dark mahogany with a reddish tinge, rosewood, black walnut, and bog oak, which were all used as variations in the furniture during the Victorian Era. Decorations were a pleasing characteristic because they were monumental in effect and decorated with carvings that were made into flowers, fruits, animals, creatures, and humans. Heavily carved furniture was popular at first, but in the late 1880’s flimsy bamboo furniture became more desirable.

Victorian aesthetics still play a role in present day furnishing. The clock tower is still used to decorate homes, even until this day.The aesthetics of dark mahogany wood was incorporated to all furniture of the home. Sofas were made out of ebonised wood, which sometimes had removable seats. Chairs also were made out of wood, preferably mahogany. They could also be oak and decoration was incised. Pairs of chairs were polished with satinwood and were decorated with ebonised rings. Tables were made out of solid, dark wood and had turned decorations, just as the chairs did. Within the bedrooms, the same dark wood style was kept throughout; the only exception was that the inside of the baths were painted cream. Every bedroom had an ample wash-stand with a marble top, toilet set, basin, soap dish, tooth-brush stand, and chamber spot.  

Chairs and Seats

The chairs and seats available for people were more revealing than any other articles about the postures and manners encouraged by the philosophy of comfort. An example of Victorian chairs, such as easy chairs, were highly enjoyable. The most fashionable easy-chair, the ‘Fireside’, allowed people of all ages to enjoy the high backs and shoulders, inclined support for the back, and a hollow seat for rest. This chair remained as a standard pattern for many upholstery. Women’s easy chairs had unbuttoned upholstery, low arms and a circular seat with a padded shell back for comfort, but their chairs did not support lounging. Another seat, the rocker, resembles the modern day rocking chair. The rocker combined comfort and elegance and formed a new social habit, with its sleek and decorous designs, and soothing capabilities for many. However, as we see the typical seats women would use, men more than women would strive for comfort before elegance, as women were meant to uphold themselves in a high manor in "costume". Therefore, the men's easy chair differed from the women's, as the men's easy chair was meant for lounging, with a longer cushion to prop their legs up

. Also, they utilized what was known as a steamer chair, which often had six legs and a detachable leg rest, which could also be used as a bed. Women would not particularly partake in the use of these types of chairs, for elegance before comfort would remain their social model to conform to.

• 
  Albert Chevallier Tayler The Grey Drawing Room
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  Albert Chevallier Tayler The Quiet Hour
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  Breakfast by Albert Chevallier Tayler 1909
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  Christmas tree decoration by Marcel Rieder (1862-1942)

Old interiors

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  Dining room of the Theodore Roosevelt Sr. townhouse, New York City (1873, demolished).
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  Victorian style dining room, USA,
  early 1900s.
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  Victorian style parlor, USA, early 1900s
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  Room with Victorian design, early 1900s
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  Parlor in a New York House from the 1850s.
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  The parlor of the Whittemore House 1526 New Hampshire Avenue, Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C

Old interiors preserved

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  1890s Bedroom, James A. Garfield National Historic Site
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  Victorian bedroom exhibition, Dalgarven Mill, Ayrshire
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  The Victorian sittingroom
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  Viktorian kitchen, Dalgarven Mill, Ayrshire
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  Viktorian kitchen, Dalgarven
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  Workhouse schoolroom

See also

• Victorian fashion
• Victoriana
• Eastlake Movement
• French polish
• Neo-Victorian
• Pteridomania
• Staffordshire dog figurine
• Charles Eastlake, Victorian designer
• Augustus Pugin, Victorian designer