Victorian Web

A view of the Market Place with statue & St Peter’s church tower. The church was originally a chapel of ease to the other Sudbury church of St Gregory. The town expanded and a new market place was created after 1322. A church was built at St Peter’s, but work was interrupted by the Black Death of 1349.

St Peter’s Church, Sudbury, Suffolk

Perpendicular west tower of c. 1467 with angle buttresses & battlements.

Now Sudbury Arts Centre,
@visitchurches.bsky.social

In foreground is a bronze statue of the artist Thomas Gainsborough by Bertram Mackennal. 1913.

#SteepleSaturday

Cloth binding for The Song of Solomon, showing two angels with arms extended high in the air obviously singing their hearts out amid a busy design of foliage and flowers, all picked out in gilt.

Just missed #WorldBookDay but here's an essay by Simon Cooke on Herbert Granville Fell as a Book Cover Designer... and an example of his dynamic Art Nouveau binding designs victorianweb.org/art/design/b...

This is brilliant but it leaves you with a real teaser!!

I've drawn together some thoughts on the PMG's Christmas 1885 competition to name the 'Ten Greatest Englishmen'.

Absolutely right! But did you try checking "history"? Macs are good that way, though the latest Mac update was problematic too... at least for this user!

Very useful resource, especially if you do enjoy going down rabbit holes!

Daffodils blooming in the grass

Jim's own cherry tree, full of blossom

"There IS no wealth but life!” #Ruskin's words are movingly brought home to us at this time of seasonal change by Jim Spates, in one of his "Why Ruskin?" blogs, which he has allowed us to reprint victorianweb.org/authors/rusk...

Looking down from a balcony on the intricate gold and darker reddish-brown design

Breathtaking Minton #tiles at St George's Hall, #Liverpool—"diagonal panels...supporting a celebration of great overlaid circlets, set very much like lilies in a pool...surrounded by multiple margins of elaborate concentric design"—photo by Patrick Carson victorianweb.org/art/design/c...

A flock of sheep with their lambs moving along a pebbly path through a field, the shepherd-boy followig, a lamb in his arms looking up into his face

Meteorological #spring! This is Daniel Alexander Williamson's "Spring," c. 1860-61—he was born in Liverpool, and influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites; his landscapes were well-liked. Notice the little lamb in the shepherd-boy's arms victorianweb.org/painting/wil... #painting

This is a great post - not only about the Dinosaurs, but various things related to both Crystal Palaces, and really interesting to read about the archive project itself 🏅

A cury-haired, bearded William Morris

Millais, palette and paintbrush poised

A rather stout and melancholic Rossetti

The Artists Rifles (no apostrophe!) was established #OnThisDay 1860. Do you recognise three of the founding members? If not, see victorianweb.org/history/army... — don't cheat by looking at the alt text!

A cross-section of people on the park bench: a pair of poor weary street musicians (mother and daughter), a nursemaid with bored rich charges, being flirted with by a soldier, and a downcast-looking top-hatted gent--other figures in the background. They all seem to have their stories to tell....

So what was it really like to live in #Victorian #London? Of course, it depended on your circumstances. Here's George Pinwell's study of a cross-section of Londoners on a bench in St James's Park #painting #society victorianweb.org/painting/pin...

Paintings of several womern in different roles, all modelled by Mary Lloyd

Ever wondered who sat for all these paintings? Angela Bolger has written about the young woman whose face became so familiar at the end of the 19c: Mary Lloyd, artist's model for Frederic Leighton and others in his circle victorianweb.org/painting/mod... #painting #models

Thank you! Will be keeping this wonderful list!

A pretty, rather too fancily dressed young woman at a counter, her hair ornament tied with a big red bow, holding a beaded purse, and giving a rather meaningful look at the viewer

Here's a painting with a thought-provoking title (or titles): "For Sale [At the Bazaar; The Empty Purse]," by James Collinson (1825-1881). Might it suggest that the woman herself is "for sale"? victorianweb.org/painting/col... #painting #womenslives

Scrolling leaves ad two red flowers on a dark background. beautifully stitched — the front cover of the book with title and author's name

Now here's another new book review: Pamela Gerrish Nunn feasts her eyes on Lynn Hulse's "May Morris Designs: 'The Essence and Soul of Beautiful #Embroidery'" — such a welcome reminder of a very special aspect of the Arts and Crafts Movement. www.victorianweb.org/art/design/e...

Passers-by being battered by rain and wind, clothes swirling, an umbrella blown inside out.... a dynamic and currently all-too-familiar scenario!

Rain again! This is Fred Barnard's take on "The Streets — Night," in the "Scenes" of Dickens's "Sketches by Boz" victorianweb.org/art/illustra... Look familiar?! #weather #illustration

A beautiful twilight making the distance golden in this rural scene, but below the wintry trees the puddles, not being frosted or iced over, suggest a spell of wet weather....

"February, Fill Dyke" by Bejamin Williams Leader, 1881--never mind the gleaming gloaming, the rain-filled ruts here apparently forecast more #rain. Just what we needed! victorianweb.org/painting/lea... #painting #landscape

This was an excellent paper and we're looking forward to reading Cara's article on early female contributions to parliamentary art which will be published later this year.

Mrs Caudle in Douglas Jerrold's "Mrs Caudle's Curtain Lectures" drawn by Charles Keene -- she tosses the pancake over an old-fashioned stove, the four children of different ages gathered excitedly round her

The Marchioness in The Old Curiosity Shop with her plate on the table barely half full, by illustrator Harold Copping

f you had pancakes yesterday, we trust you started your Lenten fare today! This is Mrs Caudle tossing a pancake in front of her eagerly waiting children, and Dickens's Marchioness being served her meagre rations! Do explore our illustrations section: victorianweb.org/art/illustra...

'Miniature Worlds: Little Landscapes from Thomas Bewick to Beatrix Potter' (Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle until February 28 2026): Little Goes Large

John Martin died #OTD 1854, Victorian painter of epic drama but currently, paradoxically, on show at Newcastle's Laing's fascinating Miniature Worlds exh cmillerartlife.blogspot.com/2025/11/mini... www.northeastmuseums.org.uk/laing/whats-...

Curving viaduct with front of train seen crossing it, the locomotive emitting clouds of steam against the dark background of the mountains, but green and pleasant below....

The Jacobite Steam Train travelling along the Glenfinnan viaduct, the longest concrete viaduct in Scotland, constructed 1897-1901. Highly recommended trip! victorianweb.org/technology/b... #trains #railways #bridges #Scotland

Brilliant! Thanks so much for spotting it!

Ventilation column, street lamp, finger post. Tooting. The Victorians really had a go at street furniture.

Poem on a page framed by bible text with an illustration of a snowdrop at one side

"The Purification Snowdrop" — designed and chromolithographed by W R Tymms--beautiful illuminations discussed in an essay by Simon Cooke victorianweb.org/art/illustra...

Cartoon showing a woman posting a card, and heaps of other cards cascading out of the back of the pillar box, while a postman looks on, bemused....

So have you posted your #Valentine card? Too late now and anyway it may be safer to send an e-card! This is what might have happened in Victorian times: cartoon entitled "The Great Overflow of Affection"! victorianweb.org/victorian/pe...

Lovely nostalgic sunset scene in the countryside, glinting water beneath the gold of the setting sun....

Samuel Palmer's "The Golden Hour", 1865: "The bars of cirrus and the setting sun, the cottage (a memory of the Shoreham years), the stone bridge with a labourer, his dog and a wain passing across it, the ancient church, and the cattle contentedly paddling ..." victorianweb.org/painting/pal...

Children in old-fashioned clothing and bonnets follow a man playing a pipe in a red hat into a dark forest. The scene is tense and moody, with a sense of mystery.

Work of the Week! The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Elizabeth Adela Forbes

This wonderfully evocative image must have been inspired by Robert Browning’s poem about the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

William Fox Talbot MP: the inventor of photography The inventor of photography William Fox Talbot died one hundred and thirty-five years ago today. A man of many talents, Talbot made distinguished contributions to maths, physics, botany, archaeolog…

Born #OnThisDay 1800 William Henry Fox Talbot. Best known as the pioneer of photography, he was also briefly MP for Chippenham, 1832-5, but stepped down to concentrate on his scientific interests. Read more about him here: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/w...

Zandvoort Fishergirl (1884) by Elizabeth Adela Forbes – oil on canvas portrait of a young Dutch fisher girl standing indoors, holding a green basin with freshly caught fish. The girl wears a dark long-sleeve blouse and a light blue apron over a skirt, her hand resting on her hip. She has fair skin, brown hair parted at the centre and tied back, and a serious, contemplative expression. The background features a rustic interior with muted blue-grey tiled walls, soft natural window light, and warm terracotta floor tiles, creating a moody, realistic atmosphere: 19th-century European realism art, coastal life genre painting, traditional fishing culture portrait.

✨Making Her Mark: A Celebration of Women in Art✨
Discover a powerful new exhibition at Penlee House (30 April – 27 September 2026) celebrating the impact and legacy of women artists - over 50 remarkable works spanning from the 1850s to today.

Find out more: penleehouse.org.uk/exhibition/m...