Bridgerton arouses interest in romantic 19th-century art
THE “Bridgerton effect” has increased demand for romantic 19th-century paintings, Sotheby’s has said.
The Netflix series follows the love lives of a family in Regency Britain, and experts say that it has created interest in the period, its fashion and its artworks.
Affluent young art-lovers who are fans of the show are expected to turn their backs on modernity and embrace the idyllic imagery of a bygone era, with sales of sentimental 19th-century paintings expected to increase as a result.
Sotheby’s has devised a sale of romantic-themed paintings from the period to cater for what the auction house sees as a coming trend in the art world, offering works featuring sleeping maidens and lovers beneath boughs of apple blossom.
Simon Toll, Sotheby’s senior specialist in Victorian and Edwardian art, said: “Painters of the 19th-century revelled in the depiction of the lustre of silk and the glitter of diamonds as displays of high fashion and opulence.
“We have seen a recent resurgence in interest for these depictions of glamour, from the red-carpet of the 2022 Met Gala to the sumptuous styling of period drama Bridgerton.
“The current appetite for seeing beautiful people, dressed elegantly and caught in romantic trysts, is the same desire to be heart-warmed that made people throng to the art exhibitions of the late Victorian era.”
Up for sale in Sotheby’s A Vision of Arcadia collection are paintings in which, according to Mr Toll, “every detail is beautiful like a perfectly composed scene in a television show”.
These include The Hammock by James Tissot, depicting a Victorian woman relaxing in a garden, and Sir
‘We have seen a recent resurgence in interest for these depictions of glamour’
John Everett Millais’s Sleeping, which shows a young woman from the same period resting in a bed.
The expected market for idyllic imagery is also being catered for with Sir James Jebusa Shannon’s In the Springtime, which shows a 19th-century couple meeting for a tryst beneath apple blossom.
In total the works, which at one point were thought to have fallen out of fashion, could sell for a total of £4 million.
Works in the A Vision of Arcadia collection will be sold in eight sales taking place across the summer.