Aestheticism and Decadence

The Aesthetic Movement

The Decadent movement Pejoritive term (originally) Rejection of progress

The Aesthetic Movement – Britain literature, fine art, the decorative arts interior design.

Aestheticism and Decadence

‘L’art pour l’art’ - Théophile Gautier (1811–1872) – cr.

Its philosophy

Art should be independent of all claptrap —should stand alone [...] and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism and the like

J. M. Whistler

Language of the senses, art and beautyUse of symbols and synaesthetic effectsAttention to the selfHedonistic attitude – the unconventionalDisenchantment with contemporary society Desire to escape ugliness and materialism of

the ageAbsence of didactic aim

Defining Features

Subversive, rejected religious faithArt as the only means to stop timeLife should be lived ‘as a work of art’Intense feelings, experience and emotionsThe Artist should feel emotionsArt has no reference to life, it has nothing to do

with morality and need not be didactic

Walter Pater (1839-1894)A essayist, critic and Wilde’s tutor at Oxford University, Pater’s thinking became one of the major influences on the Aesthetic Movement,

Its ArtistsPainters such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, J. M. Whistler and Lord Leighton chose as their models women whose looks – and lifestyles – were at odds with conventional Victorian ideals of demure femininity. In doing so, they created entirely new types of beauty.Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Aurelia

• Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (1872–98) was an English illustrator and author.

• A leading figure in the Aesthetic movement, his drawings were done in black ink and influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts.

• They emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic.

One of Beardsley’s drawings for Wilde’s play, Salomé which premiered in Paris in 1896

The Decorative ArtsCharacterised by:

Ebonized wood with gilt highlightsFar Eastern influenceProminent use of nature, especially flowers and

peacock feathers.Blue and white porcelain and other fine china.

In 1882, whilst touring Canada, Wilde gave a lecture entitled ‘The House Beautiful’, in which he extolled the merits of these new decorative arts and interiors.

Aesthetic Fashions

Liberty & Co., Dress, about 1894.

Dress

Arts & Crafts Movement• Beauty AND utility

• Rejcts Industrial Revolution

William Morris, “Artichoke Wallpaper”, c1897.

The studio-house built for the artist Frederic Leighton (1830-96) is a rare and remarkable example of an Aesthetic ‘Palace of Art’. From the opulent ‘Arab Hall’ lined with Islamic tiles to the studio where Leighton painted such masterpieces as The Bath of Psyche.

Flaming June, by Fredrick Lord Leighton (1830-1896).

Leighton’s studio in his home on 12 Holland Park Road