History of Interior Design-Pilar Uribe Donatiu-Victorian Era and Arts & Crafts

In the last session we talked about the Victorian Era (that started in 1837 and lasted until 1901) and then about the movement of Arts & Crafts (from 1850 to 1914).

Starting by the Victorian Era, it received that name because o Queen Victoria’s reign, that’s started the 20^th of June of 1837 and finished with her death on January of 1901. During that historic period there was a considerable demographic increase in Britain due to the rise of fertility rate and the decrease of the mortality rate, taking Britain’s population from 13.9 million inhabitants to 32.5 million inhabitants (all in all there was an increase of 18.6 million inhabitants in a period of 64 years).

The Victorian design was characterised by having an excessive amount of ornamentation. Victorian houses were divided in different rooms, leaving completely separate the private from the public areas such as the living room.

The former, for example, was filled with decoration and objects that reflected the owner’s interest and aspirations. The second most important room was the dining room which was commonly decorated with a sideboard (a long piece of furniture next to the table which served as a surface to place the food, cutlery and plates).

The next movement, the Arts & Crafts, was a worldwide movement in decoration and fine arts that started in Europe and North America. It started as a criticism to the poor state of the decorative arts by that time and how they were produced (in massive chain factories).

August Pugin (1812 to 1852), was an English architect, designer, artist and other, that contributed to the movement by being the pioneer of the style that revived the Gothic style in architecture. One of his most important designs were the Palace of Westminster and the Crystal Palace’s medieval court.

Another important figure of that time was William Morris and his Red House. He was also inspired by the Gothic revival (that lasted from 1830 to 1880) and used medieval style in his architecture. He was known by his excessive decoration in simple forms and his floral patterns inspired by British motives.

All in all both movements were characterised by the excessive amount of decoration and embellishment they used. The main difference is that the Arts & Craft movement cared about the way items were produced as the only pure way to do so was going back to artisans and the traditional way to produce (there was a lot of controversy regarding factories and how objects lost their magic when being produced in mass). They also gave support to considerable decoration, but all this with simpler forms if we compare it to the Victorian style, which was way more complex.