The Fin de Siècle: 1890s & Late Victorian Culture

What is important, then, is not that the critic should possess a correct abstract definition of beauty for the intellect, but a certain kind of temperament, the power of being deeply moved by the presence of beautiful objects.

Walter Pater, The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry (Oxford World’s Classics).

A scene from Monty Python’s The Flying Circus poking a bit of fun at Oscar Wilde, the playwright George Bernard Shaw, and artist James McNeill Whistler.

This is striking example of one of the Beggarstaff Brother’s poster designs from 1895. The Beggarstaffs were comprised of British illustrator Sir William Nicholson and graphic artist James Pryde. You can see more of their work in the book, The Beggarstaff Posters: The Work of James Pryde and William Nicholson.

“Imperial expositions held in fin-de-siècle London, Paris and Berlin were knots in a world wide web. Conceptualizing expositions as meta-media, Fleeting Cities constitutes a transnational and transdisciplinary investigation into how modernity was created and displayed, consumed and disputed in the European metropolis around 1900.” ~Amazon description for Fleeting Cities: Imperial Expositions in Fin-de-Siecle Europe.

I look forward to this book (coming out in August, 2010). A review should be forthcoming…

The Oscholars: devoted to exploring the literature and arts of the fin-de-siècle.

projectgutenberg:

Pan stalked into the library and choosing, cat-like, the one spot he should have kept away from, curled up on a handsome book that was lying open on the table and forgot his troubles in sleep.

- Elizabeth Bonsall (illustrator) and Mabel Humphrey, The Book of the Cat (1903) [full text]

(via oscarwildeassembly)

József Rippl-Rónai was a Hungarian post-impressionist associated with the avant-garde group, Les Nabis. Most of his paintings can be seen at the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest. For more on Ronai and his work, visit here.