Victorian Neoclassicism was a British style of historical painting inspired by the art and architecture of Classical Greece and Rome.
In the 19th century, an increasing number of Europeans made the "Grand Tour" to Mediterranean lands. There was a great popular interest in the region's ancient ruins and exotic cultures, and this interest fuelled the rise of Classicism in Britain, and Orientalism, which was mostly centered in continental Europe.
The Classicists were closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, many artists being influenced by both styles to one degree or another. Both movements were highly romantic and were inspired by similar historical and mythological themes -- the key distinction being that in Classicists paintings were embodied the rigid Academic standards of painting, while the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was initially formed as a rebellion against those same standards.
Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Frederick Leighton were the leading Classicists artists, and indeed in their lifetimes their oil paintings were considered by many to be the finest oil paintings of their generation. |
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Alma-Tadema,Sir Lawrence (1836-1912)
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Boddington, Henry John (1811-1865)
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Draper, Herbert James (1863-1920)
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Foster, Myles Birket (1825-1899)
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Godward, John William (1861-1922)
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Landseer, Sir Edwin Henry (1802-1873)
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Leighton, Edmund Blair (1853-1922)
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Leighton, Lord Frederick (1830-1896)
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Poynter, Edward John (1836-1919)
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Quiller-Orchardson, Sir William (1832-1910)
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Tissot, James Jacques Joseph (1836-1902)
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Waterhouse, John William (1849-1917)
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