The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900

Victoria and Albert Museum

What: Exhibitions

When: Sat 2 April 2011 – Sun 17 July 2011

Where: Exhibition Space One

Exhibition: The first major exhibition to comprehensively explore Aestheticism, an extraordinary artistic movement which sought to escape the ugliness and materialism of the Victorian era by creating a new kind of art and beauty.

This exhibition shows how Aesthetic artists, designers, poets and collectors promoted the idea of ‘art for art’s sake’ and how the idea of the ‘house beautiful’ became a touchstone of cultured life. The exhibition gathers together for the first time many of the greatest masterpieces of Victorian painting along with sculpture, design, furniture, architecture, fashion and literature. It includes iconic work by Burne-Jones, Whistler, Leighton, Rossetti, William Morris, Aubrey Beardsley and Oscar Wilde.