This is a recording of a talk called Owen Jones and the V&A, by Olivia Horsfall Turner recorded on 20th November 2024.
This talk was part of the Online Autumn Lecture Series 2024 called Crossing boundaries: Victorian art, design and architecture. Follow this link to watch all of the lectures.
We’re used to the idea of Victorian architecture, art and design as separate disciplines, with their own historians. But that seriously misrepresents the way that many nineteenth-century architects and designers thought and practised. They conceived of the fine and decorative arts as part of an architectural whole – a total work of art. Our seven expert speakers will boldly break down disciplinary boundaries in a discussion of the use of colour and texture across the whole range of Victorian design and analyses of the important roles played by mosaic, stained glass, embroidery and three-dimensional wall coverings. Among the highlights are lectures on two great designers who sought in very different ways to fuse architecture with decoration and the fine arts – Owen Jones and Alfred Stevens, both the subjects of major new books by our speakers.
Owen Jones and the V&A
Owen Jones was one of the most influential designers and theorists of mid-19th-century Britain. He also had a particularly close relationship with the engine of design education that was the South Kensington Museum. This talk will examine each of the projects that linked Jones and the early V&A: his famous illustrated publication The Grammar of Ornament (1856), his decorative scheme for the so-called ‘Oriental Court’, and his relatively little-known book Examples of Chinese Ornament (1867). Drawing on research for Owen Jones and the V&A: Ornament for a Modern Age (2023), this lecture will shed new light on both Jones’s ideas about architecture, ornament, and the identity of the early V&A.
Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner is Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, where she looks after the collection of design drawings and models. She is the author of Owen Jones and the V&A: Ornament for a Modern Age (Lund Humphries/V&A, 2023).
After booking a ticket, you will be given access to the recording of the event. Please ignore the event date in the listings.
This event helps raise funds for The Victorian Society - the only charity dedicated to fighting for our Victorian and Edwardian heritage. Join us today and safeguard our unique cultural heritage for future generations! For further information, click here.
The Victorian Society is an IHBC recognised CPD provider.
Image: 2019LJ3915: Design by Owen Jones for Plate 10 in Examples of Chinese Ornament (1867), 1866. V&A E.54-2018. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
