Printable Vintage Art: Reading Biedermeier Lady by Alexander von Salzmann

Reading Biedermeier Lady
by Alexander von Salzmann (1874–1934)

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.
― Charles W. Eliot

I spent my life folded between the pages of books.
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.
― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia.
[2] The Real Victorian's digitally enhanced version of the painting (seen above), downloadable as a 7" x 6.5" @ 300 ppi JPEG.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Illustration: A Chaperoned Tryst, 1896

It isn't possible to love and part. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.
― E.M. Forster, A Room with a View

We stood there, looking at each other, saying nothing. But it was the kind of nothing that meant everything. In his eyes, there was no trace of what had happened between us earlier and I could feel something inside me break. So that was that. We were finally, finally over. I looked at him, and I felt so sad, because this thought occurred to me: “I will never look at you the same way again. I'll never be that girl again. The girl who comes running back every time you push her away, the girl who loves you anyway.”
I couldn’t even be mad at him, because this was who he was. This was who he’d always been. He’d never lied about that. He gave and then he took away. I felt it in the pit of my stomach, the familiar ache, that lost, regretful feeling only he could give me. I never wanted to feel it again. Never, ever. Maybe this was why I came, so I could really know. So I could say good-bye. I looked at him, and I thought, “If I was very brave or very honest, I would tell him.”
I would say it, so he would know it and I would know it, and I could never take it back. But I wasn’t that brave or honest, so all I did was look at him. And I think he knew anyway. “I release you. I evict you from my heart. Because if I don't do it now, I never will.” I was the one to look away first.
― Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You

Antique illustration of a Victorian lady having a tryst with a handsome gentleman in military costume while accompanied by a strict chaperon; originally published 1896. You can download the high-res illustration as an 12” x 7” @ 300 ppi JPEG here.


For personal use only. Not for resale. All digitized work by The Real Victorian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Please cite RealVictorian.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Printable Vintage Art: A Bouquet of Poppies by the Window by Olga Wisinger-Florian

A Bouquet of Poppies by the Window, before 1926
by Olga Wisinger-Florian (1844–1926)

She taught me all about real sacrifice. That it should be done from love... That it should be done from necessity, not without exhausting all other options. That it should be done for people who need your strength because they don't have enough of their own.
― Veronica Roth

For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. And when you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you.
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia.
[2] The Real Victorian's digitally enhanced version of the painting (seen above), downloadable as a 9" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: Funeral Procession in the Rain by Carl Strathmann

Funeral Procession in the Rain, c1913
by Carl Strathmann (1866–1939)
Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. You're just passing it on to someone else.
― Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven

There are memories that time does not erase... Forever does not make loss forgettable, only bearable.
― Cassandra Clare, City of Heavenly Fire

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia.
[2] The Real Victorian's digitally enhanced version of the painting (seen above), downloadable as a 10" x 7.75" @ 300 ppi JPEG.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Victorian Template (Illustrated Header): Waiting in the Parlour, 1896

If pain must come, may it come quickly.
Because I have a life to live, and I need to live it in the best way possible.
If he has to make a choice, may he make it now.
Then I will either wait for him or forget him.
― Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Patience is power.
Patience is not an absence of action;
rather it is “timing”
it waits on the right time to act,
for the right principles
and in the right way.
― Fulton J. Sheen
Victorian illustration of a lady waiting on a chair in a parlour from 1896.Do you think it may have been in a grand parlour such as this one?

Salon im Makartstil
by Georg Janny (1864–1935)

You can download the high-res black and white illustrated header as a 5.5” x 7” @ 300 ppi JPEG here. You can find the watercolour painting of the salon as it was originally published here or if you would like to download my digitally enhanced version, you can find it as a 10” x 6.25” @ 300 ppi JPEG here.


For personal use only. Not for resale. All digitized work by The Real Victorian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Please cite RealVictorian.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Printable Vintage Illustration: Lost in Thought, 1896

She was always daydreaming. She never wanted to live in the real world; she always seemed to be separated from other children her age. They couldn’t understand her or her imagination. She was always thinking outside of the box, breaking rules, and only following what her heart told her was right.
― Shannon A. Thompson, November Snow

There are certain half-dreaming moods of mind in which we naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek some quiet haunt where we may indulge our reveries and build our air castles undisturbed.
― Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories

Two vintage illustrations from 1892 showing Victorian women with little black books. You can download the high-res illustration as an 4” x 7.5” @ 300 ppi JPEG here. Larger image size available for licensing. Please inquire.


For personal use only. Not for resale. All digitized work by The Real Victorian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Please cite RealVictorian.com as your source when sharing or publishing.