Aesthetic movement

Whistler, Peacock Room, 1876/77

British art movement, which developed out of a combination of neo-gothic elements and the Queen Anne revival. Designers of the Aesthetic Movement were fascinated by Japanese woodcuts and oriental art (Japonisme). Designers of the Aesthetic Movement were for example the architect E.W. Godwin, Christopher Dresser and James Abbot McNeill Whistler. One well-known example for the design of this period is the Peacock Room by Whistler, which he made for F.R. Leyland's flat in London in 1876/77. Today it is shown in the Freer Gallery in Washington.

The most prominent figures connected with the Aesthetic movement in Britain are Oscar Wilde and the artist Aubrey Beardsley.

Sources

• Fiell, Carlotte und Peter. Design Handbook: Konzepte ,Materialien, Stile. Köln: Taschen, 2006.
• Zatlin, Linda Gertner. Beardsley, Japonisme and the perversion of the Victorian ideal. Cambridge: CUP, 1997.