Free Printable Vintage Illustration for Cardmaking, Journaling, Scrapbooking or Wall Art: Conversation in the Conservatory, 1857

It is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude.
To make enemies by unnecessary and willful incivility,
is just as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire.
For politeness is like a counter ― an avowedly false coin,
with which it is foolish to be stingy.
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims

Life is short, but there is always time enough for courtesy.
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Antique illustration originally published in 1857 showing two Victorian ladies in (one-sided?) conversation in a conservatory.

Free to download for use in cardmaking, journaling and scrapbooking projects or simply print and frame as wall art. You can find the high-res 8" x 10" @ 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 Printable Vintage Illustration for Mixed-Media Collage, Journaling, Papercrafts or Wall Art: Conversation in a Café, 1893

Each friend represents a world in us,
a world possibly not born until they arrive,
and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
― Anais Nin

How many slams in an old screen door? Depends how loud you shut it.
How many slices in a bread? Depends how thin you cut it.
How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live 'em.
How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give 'em.
― Shel Silverstein

Antique illustration of two Victorian ladies enjoying a meal and warm conversation in a Parisian café. Image was originally published in 1893 and was captioned "Entre Amies" (With Friends).

Free to download for use in mixed-media collage, journaling, and various papercrafts projects or simply print and frame as wall art. You can find the high-res 8" x 10" @ 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: Victorian Ladies in Party Gowns, 1892

People of our time are losing the power of celebration.
Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained.
Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation.
To be entertained is a passive state
― it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle....
Celebration is a confrontation,
giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions.
― Abraham Joshua Heschel

Two Victorian young women in formal dinner gowns, standing in a formal foyer or reception area. Originally published in 1892. You can download the 8" x 10" @ 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 Printable Vintage Illustration for Mixed-Media Collage, Journaling, Papercrafts or Wall Art: A Stitch in Time Saves Nine, 1866

If you choose to not deal with an issue,
then you give up your right of control over the issue
and it will select the path of least resistance.
― Susan Del Gatto

The sooner a problem is recognized and acted upon
– the less damage there is.
― Mozammel Khan

Antique engraving from an 1866 issue of Peterson's Magazine. This vintage illustration shows a Victorian mother tenderly coaching her daughter in repairing a torn skirt.The original caption that appeared with the picture was "A Stitch in Time Saves Nine."

Free to download for use in mixed-media collage, journaling, and various papercrafts projects or simply print and frame as wall art. You can find the high-res 6" x 8" @ 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: Victorian Ladies After Dinner, 1866

Lie still, lie still, my breaking heart;
My silent heart, lie still and break:
Life, and the world, and mine own self, are changed
For a dream's sake.
― Christina Rossetti

And, at such a time, for a few of us there will always be a tugging
at the heart — knowing a precious moment had gone and we not there.
We can ask and ask but we can’t have again what once seemed ours for ever
— the way things looked, that church alone in the fields,
a bed on belfry floor, a remembered voice, a loved face.
They’ve gone and you can only wait for the pain to pass.
― J.L. Carr, A Month in the Country
Printable vintage fashion illustration from an 1866 issue of Peterson's showing a gathering of five Victorian ladies in the drawing room after dinner. One of the ladies is sitting by the window looking melancholy, causing another lady (possibly a relative or close friend) to look at her with some concern.

Download and use in various altered art, graphic design, papercrafts, scrapbooking or wall art projects. You can find the free high-res 12" x 9" @ 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: Together We Stand, 1892

I'd rather be standing here with you than out there without you.
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, From Blood and Ash

Life teaches us to
Bend like the willow during a storm
Glide like an eagle
Under the sun mighty and warm
But to stand together
No matter the weather
Unity is all for the better
― Marie Helen Abramyan

Two Victorian young women in double-breasted outfits, an arm around each other, standing on a balcony, and looking fearlessly out at the world. Originally published in 1892. You can download the 8" x 12.5" @ 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 Fashion History Illustrations: A Trio of Winter Fashions, 1896

Solace can be measured in the quiet silence between heartbeats.
― Anthony T. Hincks

Winter Jacket and Cape - 8" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG (1st link below)

✾✾✾✾✾✾✾✾✾✾✾

Some women are truly beautiful. The light of love shines through their souls.
And the world gets drenched in their inimitable light of love.
But do not try to dominate them. Let them keep their softness and tenderness.
― Avijeet Das

The Butterfly Sleeve - 8" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG (2nd link below)

✾✾✾✾✾✾✾✾✾✾✾

You see, women are like fires, like flames.
Some women are like candles, bright and friendly.
Some are like single sparks,
or embers, like fireflies for chasing on summer nights.
Some are like campfires,
all light and heat for a night and willing to be left after.
Some women are like hearthfires,
not much to look at but underneath they are all warm red coal
that burns a long, long while.
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

Cloth Dress with Velvet Bands - 6" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG (3rd link below)
A trio of delicate ink and wash illustrations featuring Victorian ladies in winter fashions of 1896. The designs featured are: a winter jacket and a winter cape, the butterfly sleeve, and a cloth dress with velvet bands. You can download the high-res JPEGs without a watermark here (Link 1), here (Link 2), and here (Link 3).


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: Travel Companions, 1893

But that's the glory of foreign travel, as far as I am concerned.
I don't want to know what people are talking about.
I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder
than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.
Suddenly you are five years old again. You can't read anything,
you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work,
you can't even reliably cross a street without endangering your life.
Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses.
― Bill Bryson, Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe

To move, to breathe, to fly, to float,
To gain all while you give,
To roam the roads of lands remote,
To travel is to live.
― Hans Christian Andersen, The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography
Two Victorian ladies in travel costumes; originally published in 1893. You can download the high-res 8.5" x 10" @ 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: A Tender Correspondence, 1860

Whatever you choose for your stationery is your favorite color
because it's where you pour your heart out.
― Mary E. Pearson, The Miles Between

It is late now, I am a bit tired; the sky is irritated by stars.
And I love you, I love you, I love you ―
and perhaps this is how the whole enormous world, shining all over,
can be created – out of five vowels and three consonants.
― Vladimir Nabokov, Letters to Vera
Vintage fashion illustration of two Victorian ladies dressed in walking dresses, one in purple, the other is a soft dove gray. The lady in purple is intently reading a letter. Originally published c1860.

Download and use in various altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects. You can download the high-res 8" x 10" @ 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: Winter Fashions, 1866

Winter teetered on the verge of succumbing to the returning sun,
but today the breeze still preferred the touch of snowflakes.
― Rue, An Average Curse

One can follow the sun, of course,
but I have always thought that it is best to know some winter, too,
so that the summer, when it arrives, is the more gratefully received.
― Beatriz Williams, Along the Infinite Sea

Printable vintage fashion illustration from an 1866 issue of Peterson's showing a gathering of four ladies in a variety of winter fashions. Two of the ladies on the far left are looking outside the window at a group of boys rowdily playing on the ice in the front yard. A young girl in an embroidered black and white outfit is cuddling a puppy in her arms as the puppy's mama looks up at them in concern.

Download and use in various altered art, graphic design, papercrafts, scrapbooking or wall art projects. You can find the free high-res 12" x 9" @ 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 Antique Fashion Illustration: Victorian Lady in Head Dress of Gros Grain Ribbon, 1873

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears,
for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.
I was better after I had cried, than before
― more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

The point of life isn't to avoid pain. The point of life is to be alive!
To feel things. That means the good and the bad. There'll be pain.
But also joy, and friendship and love. And it's worth it, believe me.
― John Stephens, The Fire Chronicle

A fashion history illustration of a Victorian lady wearing a head dress of gros grain ribbon; scanned from my collection of antique Harper's Bazar magazines. Originally published in 1873.

To download the free, high-res 6" x 7.5" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark, please click here. Can be used in mixed-media collage art, junk journaling, papercrafts, and scrapbooking projects or simply print and use as a gift tag or greeting card.


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 Antique Fashion Illustration: Victorian Lady in Knit Jacket, 1873

You will be one of the menders of this world;
not the makers, nor yet the breakers,
just one of the menders.
― Rosemary Sutcliff, The Witch's Brat

I ... am left with the lingering feeling
that the places we go in our minds to find comfort
have little to do with where our bodies go.
― Christina Baker Kline, A Piece of the World

Victorian lady in knitted and crochet white zephyr worsted jacket from 1873. Found in my personal collection of La Mode Illustrée. You can download the high-res 11" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEGs 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: Victorian Birthday Party, 1857

May today be the best birthday of your life,
I give you my heart as the most precious gift I can give you
and I promise I always will love you.
― Oscar Auliq-Ice

Forget your voice, sing!
Forget your feet, dance!
Forget your life, live!
Forget yourself and be!
― Kamand Kojouri
Vintage fashion illustration of a Victorian family dressed in the fanciest fashions to celebrate a special occasion. Originally published in 1857.

Download and use in various altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects. You can download the high-res 8" x 10" @ 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 Fashion History Illustration: Victorian Lady in Belle Époque Promenade Dress, 1893

Belief in yourself is more important than
endless worries of what others think of you.
Value yourself and others will value you.
Validation is best that comes from within.
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Dreams in a Time of War

To be around someone whose self-confidence is more
than what our first glance led us to expect is seductive.
― Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone

A self-confident Victorian lady standing on a balcony with beautiful ironwork, observing the scene below her with great interest. Originally published in 1893. You can download the 6" x 10.5" @ 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: Victorian Ladies in Evening Gowns, 1857

...and the evening was so beautiful,
that it made a pain in my heart,
as when you cannot tell wether you are happy or sad;
and I thought that if I could have a wish,
it would be that nothing would ever change,
and we would stay that way forever.
― Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace
Vintage fashion illustration of two Victorian ladies in dazzlingly beautigul evening gowns. They are enjoying a quiet moment in front of a mirrored mantle. Originally published in 1857.

Download and use in various altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects. You can download the high-res 8" 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.

Printable Vintage Fashion Illustration: Victorian Ladies by the Sea, 1892

When you are joyful, when you say yes to life
and have fun and project positivity all around you,
you become a sun in the center of every constellation,
and people want to be near you.
― Shannon L. Alder

Grey rocks, and greyer sea,
And surf along the shore ―
And in my heart a name
My lips shall speak no more.
― Charles G.D. Roberts
Vintage fashion illustration of two Victorian ladies on a seaside sojourn; originally published in 1892. Scanned from my personal collection of antique La Mode Illustrée magazines.

Download and use in various altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects. You can download the high-res 8" 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.

Printable Vintage Fashion Illustration: Victorian Ladies wit a Book and a Letter, 1892

We read to know we're not alone.
― William Nicholson, Shadowlands: A Play

The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
Vintage fashion illustrations from 1892 showing Victorian ladies with a book (left), and with a letter (right). Scanned from my personal collection of antique La Mode Illustrée magazines.

Download and use in various altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects. You can download the high-res 8" x 6" @ 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 Fashion History Illustration: Three Victorian Ladies in Belle Époque Promenade Dresses, 1893

The dust was antique spice, burnt maple leaves,
a prickling blue that teemed and sifted to earth.
Swarming its own shadows, the dust filtered over the tents.
― Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes
Three Victorian ladies, one seated reading a printed programme, the other two standing on either side of her. They seem to be at a carnival or perhaps at the races. You can download the 8" x 10" @ 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 Printable Fashion History Illustration: Victorian Ladies with Belle Époque Veils, 1872

Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward,
I could never stop thinking that maybe
she loved mysteries so much that she became one.
― John Green, Paper Towns

Victorian ladies in two types of veils from 1872, surrounded by a pretty floral border. Found in my personal collection of La Mode Illustrée. Free high-res 8" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEGs 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 Printable Fashion History Illustration for Altered Art, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: Belle Époque Visiting Costumes, 1892

Come and see us if you feel like it. I always expect people to ask themselves.
Life is too short to send out invitations.
― Daphne du Maurier

It's not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world.
It's our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless.
― L.R. Knost, Two Thousand Kisses a Day: Gentle Parenting Through the Ages and Stages

A vintage fashion history illustration from 1892 showing two Victorian ladies and a young girl, all dressed in the latest Parisian styles. One of the ladies seems to be heading out the door, her outfit accessorized with a veiled hat and a parasol. Scanned from my personal collection of antique La Mode Illustrée magazines.

Download and use in various altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects. You can find the free high-res 8" x 10" @ 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.