Victorian narratives
Blandford Fletcher | England 1858–1936 | Evicted 1887 | Oil on canvas | 123.1 x 185.3cm | Purchased 1896 | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
The Victorian era was a period of rapid growth and change lasting from around 1840 to the early twentieth century. Queen Victoria’s reign (1837–1901) saw the ascendancy of Britain as a powerful imperial nation and the mechanisation of England’s textile, mineral and rural industries reached its zenith during her 64-year reign. A new industrial, merchant middle class represented a painting market previously confined to the aristocracy and gentry. These new buyers bought the work of living artists rather than old masters, and Victorian artists responded by painting genre scenes, landscapes, portraits of children and animals, scenes of modern life, heroic events from British history, and classical myths and legends.
Victorian painting was considered a moral teacher, with the virtues of piety and charity, hard work, children’s innocence and the sanctity of family life being common themes. The new urban culture of Victorian Britain, which had expanded in the wake of industrialisation, brought with it poverty, destitution and other public welfare issues. The slum conditions of Victorian London, where displaced rural workers and growing numbers of factory workers lived, saw a dramatic increase in disease, petty crime and homelessness. In paintings of the era, these issues were represented in a polite fashion so as to not offend middle-class taste. However, the early 1900s saw the painters of the period fall out of favour with the critics of the modernist movement – the narrative content, illustrative style and moralising of Victorian painting was considered out of step with the new century.
