Victorian Christmas cards

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During Easter I frequently post Victorian Easter cards which are, to put it mildly, rather bizarre. I decided to see what Victorian Christmas cards were like. Uhhh...  that may have been a bad decision.

Above we have a young lad in a teapot, presumably the adults are brewing some ankle-biter tea. Below we have snowman's ghost with a club getting ready to waylay a pedestrian, and then Santa Claus is committing armed robbery -- I suppose that is either commentary on Christmas commercialism, or perhaps Santa raising funds to pay his elves' salary.  

From there on the cards continue to be strange. I assume the cards are meant to be jokes, but, like a Hieronymus Bosch painting, time has stripped the visuals of their meaning leaving only oddity behind. At any rate, if you get one of these cards this Christmas, will it be from friend or foe?

Happy Easter

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In this Victorian Easter card we have an old geezer getting knocked silly by rabbits tossing Easter eggs at him. I guess it is all about the end of winter, but it seems rather uncalled for nonetheless. Anyway, Happy Easter and I hope you're more civil and in the spirit of the holiday than our rabbit hooligans.  

 

Happy Easter

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Another Easter, another bizarre Victorian Easter card. I confess to having no idea why some bumble bees and rock tossing frogs would ambush a couple of Easter bunnies. Whatever the reason, it appears to be a serious fracas. Perhaps if I were a Victorian hepcat I would get the joke, but as it is, it is a mystery to my 21st Century self. 

Anyway, have a good Easter everybody.

 

Warwick Goble's illustrations of fairy tales

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Warwick Goble was an illustrator of children's books and fairy tales who worked in the late 19th/early 20th century. He is known for his Japanese and Indian styles. It is obvious that he, like many artists in the 19th century, was heavily influenced by Japanese prints. 

I gathered these images, and those after the jump, of his work from here and there. Artpassion's Warwick Goble Art Gallery has many more examples of his work.  

The nocturnal paintings of John Atkinson Grimshaw

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John Atkinson Grimshaw was a Victorian painter who is best known for his atmospheric landscape paintings lit only by moonlight and gas lamps. He was a self-taught artist. Also a photographer he used a camera obscura to project his scenes and get the perspective correct. During his life he was criticized for that, although one of his many admirers was the American Artist James Whistler, who admired Grimshaw's use of color and shadow. 

At the above Grimshaw link there are more examples of his work, including some daylight painting as well as a few rather goofy fairy paintings that were so beloved by the English Victorians. 

John Atkinson Grimshaw

Victorian burlesque dancers

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Victorian burlesque were comedies of the day that relied on caricaturing more serious works. Shakespeare was a common target. Of course there was a bit of titillations involved as well. These are pictures of some of the burlesque actresses of the day. Tastes change, and that is most obvious in some of the painfully corseted waists on display.

These pictures, and those after the jump are from the Vintage News post Victorian burlesque dancers and their flamboyant costumes. There are more pictures and information at the link.