Name/Title
Victorians At HomeEntry/Object ID
2025.103.1Description
The years from Queen Victoria's birth in 1819 to her death in 1901 saw the development of the domestic interior as we know it today. In Victorians at Home Susan Lasdun traces the changing character of English homes during this period, revealing their unexpected richness and variety. An introduction by Mark Girouard, author of the best-selling Life in the English Country House, provides vivid insights into Victorian family lite.
By concentrating on several families from widely different backgrounds the book shows how the families' aspirations and values were reflected in the interiors of their houses.
Victoria, Queen and Empress, longed for the intimacy of a family home, which she found first at Osborne and then at Balmoral. These two houses - whose interior decoration was masterminded by Prince Albert - are shown in watercolors from the Royal Souvenir Albums, as are the interiors of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
The home life of the Drummonds, a wealthy banking family, was captured in paintings by their children; George Scharf, a bachelor and first director of the National Portrait Gallery, made meticulous drawings of the rooms in Westminster that he shared with his mother and aunt; and in his home in Fulham, the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones happily mixed work, family, and friends.
The portraits of these and other families, their homes and their life-styles, are based on diaries and records, and are illustrated with contemporary watercolors, drawings and photographs, the majority of which have never been published before. Victorians at Home is an informed, intimate glimpse into another century.Create Date
May 24, 2025
