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 Vintage Fashion Illustration: Romantic Renaissance Lace Two Ways, 1904

I was smiling yesterday,I am smiling today and I will smile tomorrow.
Simply because life is too short to cry for anything.
― Santosh Kalwar, Quote Me Everyday

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.
These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway,
the good they do is inconceivable.
― Joseph Addison

Two ways to incorporate romantic Renaissance lace, one in an attractive collar, another to embellish a parasol; originally published in 1904. From my personal collection of La Mode Illustrée. Free high-res 9" 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.

Free Printable Vintage Art: The Daughters of Our Empire. England: The Primrose by Edwin Long

The Daughters of Our Empire. England: The Primrose, 1887
by Edwin Long (1829–1891)

Different from all other essences in the world the smell
of primroses has a sweetness that is faint and tremulous,
and yet possesses a sort of tragic intensity.
There exists in this flower, its soft petals, its cool, crinkled leaves,
its pinkish stalk that breaks at a touch, something which seems able to pour
its whole self into the scent it flings on the air.
Other flowers have petals that are fragrant. The primrose has something more than that.
The primrose throws its very life into this essence of itself
which travels upon the air.
― John Cowper Powys, A Glastonbury Romance

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia Commons
[2] A short description of the painting and the model (American heiress Jennie Jerome,
mother of prime minister Sir Winston Churchill) by Yale Center for British Art
[3] A short article of the artist Edwin Long
[4] The Real Victorian's enhanced version of the painting (seen above),
downloadable as a 6" x 9" @ 300 ppi JPEG

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