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 - for example the architect E.W. Godwin, Christopher Dresser and James Abbot McNeill Whistler - were also fascinated by Japanese woodcuts and oriental art (Japonisme). 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 1876/1877. 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.