Historicism (art)

Not to be confused with historicism.

This article is about a school of art and architecture. For philosophical theories known as historicism, see historicism.

Thomas Cole, The Architect's Dream, 1840

Historicism comprises artistic styles that draw their inspiration from reproducing historic styles or artisans. Through combination of different styles or implementation of new elements, historicism can create completely different aesthetics than former styles. Thus it offers a great variety of possible designs.

In history of art, after Neoclassicism which in the Romantic era could itself be considered a historicist movement, the 19th century saw a new historicist phase marked by an imitation not only of Greek and Roman classicism, but also of succeeding stylistic eras, which were increasingly considered equivalent. In particular in architecture and in the genre of history painting, the global influence of historicism was especially strong from the 1860s onwards, following the rise of the bourgeoisie during the Industrial Revolution, to the fin de siècle and the early 20th century, when it was surmounted by the Art Nouveau style and the modernist Expressionism movement.

See also

• Gründerzeit
• Revivalism (architecture)
• Resort architecture (Bäderarchitektur in German) - a specific style of historicism, that is popular on the German Baltic Sea coast
• Neo-Historism
• Academicism
• Musical historicism

External links

Media related to Historicist architecture at Wikimedia Commons