Aesthetic Movement 1860s-1890s
Historical and Social
Design aspects were inspired by London's Great Exhibition, Crystal Palace, 1851.
Began with poet Charles Algernon Swinburne and writer Walter Patar who brought the cult of Aethieticism from France in the 1860s.
One of the more important group is called the Aesthetes, who enjoy "artistic" sensibilities. They rejected the ideas that were admired by the Philistines.
They define beauty as ideas based on usefulness, color, form, and ornament to access the beauty of an object or artwork.
Women are important in this movement as the focus of reform and as transmitters of reform. They were now devoted to different roles such as continuing education and becoming artists, designers, decorators, and critics.
By the 1880s the Aesthetic movement begins to move to the arts and crafts movement and Art Nouveau.
Concepts
the main concept of this movement was the idea of using the elements and principles of design and historic art presidents in order to create a good design.
Has contemporary values and focuses on many preindustrial cultures, such as Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages, Italian Renaissance, vernacular traditions, and the arts if Japan, China, India, and the Near East. It avoids anything French and focuses on artistic elements of design. Designers, architects, and artists come together to work on new designs for furniture, buildings, and decorative art. They not only design what is in their field of work but expand on to various roles.
Art and Artistic now relate to the latest fashion and is a term that appeals to consumers. Architecture, interiors, furniture, and accessories are described as artistic rather than aesthetic.
Interiors: Demonstrates the family's culture and social status, help educate children, and influence character.
Architecture
Design Characteristics
Common characteristics include: asymmetry, unity, harmony, and contrast
Simplicity and eclecticism are also typical.
Artistic interiors include the use of tertiary colors, variety of patterns on the wall, ceilings, furniture, and accessories, wooden floors with area rugs, potteries and banded curtains, furniture and accessories from different periods, cultures, and styles.
Needlework and other crafts that show the skills of women in the household
Queen Anne and Old English are still associated with this style. The designers who are in those styles often share Aesthetic approaches to their designs, which affects architecture and stylistic developments in both England and America.
There was a new diversity of sources, including Japan and domestic traditions.
japanese ho-o-den pavilion world's columbian exposition 
James A M Whistler residence, white house, tite street, 1877
green dining room 1867 London England, Philip Webb
Frederick Leyland house 1876 London England
Furnishings: Wallpapers had raised and embossed patterns. Japanese leather paper was used in rooms and designs were influenced by Renaissance, Japanese, Moorish, Byzantine, Greek, Gothic, and Modern.
Mantels: Usually the focal point of the room and unites beauty with function.