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 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

Antique fashion illustration from 1896 showing a Victorian lady lost in reverie. 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.

Printable Victorian Fashion Illustration: Lady in Summer Dress of White Muslin, 1876

‘Life and summer are fleeting,’ sang the bird. ‘Snow and dark, and the winter comes. Nothing remains the same.’
― Elyne Mitchell, Silver Brumby's Daughter

Her fragility makes her uncomfortable, but it has a familiarity, too, like the biting cold of winter that you only half forget during other seasons.
― Meg Donohue, All the Summer Girls

Antique fashion illustration from 1876 of a Victorian lady in a summer dress of white muslin. You can download the high-res illustration as a 8” x 10” @ 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.

Printable Vintage Fashion Illustration: Fashionable Hats for Autumn and Winter, 1870s

One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.
― Oscar Wilde

Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid.
― Frederick Buechner
French fashion illustration from the 1870s showing fashionable hats (and head covering) for fall (autumn) and winter. You can download the high-res illustration as an 8" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark 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 Fashion Illustration: Ladies' Autumn Toilette, 1878

A moral character is attached to autumnal scenes;
the leaves falling like our years, the flowers fading like our hours,
the clouds fleeting like our illusions, the light diminishing like our intelligence,
the sun growing colder like our affections,
the rivers becoming frozen like our lives
-- all bear secret relations to our destinies.
― François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe

1878 fashion history illustration of Gilded Age ladies parading their autumn toilette on the terrace of a grand mansion. You can download the high-res illustration as a 7" x 5" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark 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 Fashion Illustration: Her Sunday Best 1 (1864)

The little things of life, sweet and excellent in their place, must not be the things lived for; the highest must be sought and followed; the life of heaven must be begun here on earth.
― L.M. Montgomery

Modesty is the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it.
― Oliver Herford

Antique fashion illustration from 1864 of a young Victorian lady dressed in her Sunday best. You can download the high-res illustration as an 11” x 8.5” @ 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.

Printable Vintage Fashion Illustration: A Formal Introduction 1

Some people need a red carpet rolled out in front of them in order to walk forward into friendship. They can't see the tiny outstretched hands all around them, everywhere, like leaves on trees.
― Miranda July, No One Belongs Here More Than You

Because the difference between a friend and a real friend is that you and the real friend come from the same territory, of the same place deep inside you, and that means you see the world in the same kind of way. You know each other even before you do.
― Laura Pritchett, Sky Bridge

Antique fashion illustration from 1896 of two Victorian ladies meeting in a formal setting. You can download the high-res illustration as an 8” x 10” @ 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.

Printable Vintage Fashion Illustration: Lady in Frosted Taffeta 1

Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes.
If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed.
Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding,
the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings.
― Rumi

To be of good quality, you have to excuse yourself
from the presence of shallow and callow minded individuals.
― Michael Bassey Johnson

Antique fashion illustration from 1896 of a Victorian lady in frosted taffeta. You can download the high-res illustration as a 6” x 8” @ 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.

Printable Vintage Illustration: The Three Judges, 1896

We need very strong ears to hear ourselves judged frankly, and because there are few who can endure frank criticism without being stung by it, those who venture to criticize us perform a remarkable act of friendship, for to undertake to wound or offend a man for his own good is to have a healthy love for him.
― Michel de Montaigne

That's why I'm talking to you. You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception. You see what is, where most people see what they expect.
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden

1896 illustration of three sombre-looking Victorian ladies in business-like attire. You can download the high-res illustration as a 4” x 4” @ 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.

Free Vintage Clipart for Collage, Scrapbooking or Papercrafts: Spring Sunshine

Like a favorite song, old dreams keep on playing in my mind
They've waited for so long, for their time to finally arrive
I do believe now's the time,
I've gone years and years without really living
Minding squeaky wheels just giving and giving
And dreaming,
Like wildflowers growing through sidewalk cracks
The weight of the world makes 'em change their tracks
To find, the sun, and shine
Now, now, now's the time.
― Marie Helen Abramyan

Antique illustration from c1897 of a Victorian lady pulling a curtain aside to enjoy a spot of spring sunshine. High-res 8.5" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark 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.

Free Vintage Clipart for Altered Art, Junk Journaling, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: From Winter Into Spring

Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.
― Rumi

Late 19th century illustration showing a Victorian lady in a transforming landscape, from winter into spring. You can download the watercolour drawing as a high-res 10" x 8" @ 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.

Free Vintage Clipart for Collage, Scrapbooking or Papercrafts: Pansies for Thought

Just in case you ever foolishly forget, I'm never not thinking of you.
― Virginia Woolf

Knowledge holds the power
But It's Memory that possesses it.
― Ritu Negi
Antique illustration from 1897 of a Victorian lady dressed in Elizabethan costume playing a lute on a terrace. The image is decorated in the foreground with a clump of pansies with a caption stating "Pansies foe Thought." You can download the engraving as a high-res 8.5" x 11" @ 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 Fashion Illustration: Gilded Age Hairstyles 1875

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say,
and not giving a damn.
― Orson Welles

1875 fashion history illustration of Gilded Age hairstyles by Mr. W.J. Barker of 1271 Broadway, New York. You can download the high-res illustration as an 8" x 9" @ 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: Searching for Clues, 1875

The truth must be quite plain, if one could just clear away the litter.
― Agatha Christie

She remembered what her old priest had said: a half-truth masquerading as a whole truth was nothing but an untruth. But half-truths were horseplay in Miranda, where big lies came quick and easy. And they were about to come a lot easier.
― Chad Boudreaux, Homecoming Queen

1875 illustration of a Victorian lady in a ball gown; she seems to be looking around for someone/something. You can download the high-res illustration as a 6" x 8" @ 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.

Printable Vintage Illustrations: Victorian Lady with Flowers in her Hair, 1868

whatever you do
be gentle with yourself.
you don’t just live
in this world
or your home
or your skin.
you also live
in someone’s eyes.
― Sanober Khan

Nothing is so strong as gentleness.
Nothing is so gentle as real strength.
― Ralph W. Sockman

1868 engravings of a Victorian lady with flowers in her hair (front and back views). You can download the high-res illustrations in one 7" x 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.

Printable Vintage Illustrations: Sunday Morning, 1886

You never know these days. Uninvited guests may force you to take an unplanned trip to an unknown destination; doesn’t hurt to be in your Sunday clothes.
― Anurag Shourie, Half A Shadow

Sundays are like confetti floating in the air in slow motion, in the evening they reach the ground and you hope a bit of wind could blow on them so they could fly a bit longer.
― Alain Bremond-Torrent, running is flying intermittently

1886 illustration of two ladies in their Sunday best. You can download the high-res illustrations in one 6" x 6" @ 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.

Printable Vintage Illustration: Girl on a Bench, 1896

He looked at her. She was pretty still, with thick hair and soft eyes, and she moved so gracefully that it almost seemed as though she were gliding. He'd seen beautiful women before, though, women who caught his eye, but to his mind, they usually lacked the traits he found most desirable. Traits like intelligence, confidence, strength of spirit, passion, traits that inspired others to greatness, traits he aspired to himself.
― Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

1896 illustration of a girl on a bench from my own collection. You can download the high-res illustration as a 4.25" x 5.5" @ 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.

Vintage Clipart for Collage, Graphic Design or Scrapbooking: Reverie (1 & 2)

Nothing makes time pass or shortens the way
like a thought that absorbs in itself all the faculties of the one who is thinking.
External existence is then like a sleep of which this thought is the dream.
Under its influence, time has no more measure, space has no more distance.
― Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers

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
Two black and white illustrations from 1896 of young women in a daydream. You can download the high-res clipart here and 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.

Printable Vintage Fashion Illustration for Collage, Graphic Design or Scrapbooking: Cold Weather Capes, 1893

Invisible threads are the strongest ties.
― Friedrich Nietzsche

We are like islands in the sea,
separate on the surface but connected in the deep.
― William James

Ladies in cold weather capes gathered in conversation. High-res 6" x 4" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark 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.