18th Century

Ideas inspired by the decorative arts of the 18th century. Rococo was an 18th-century artistic movement and style, influencing painting, sculpture, interior design and music, it developed in the early 18th century in Paris as a reaction against the Baroque. Rococo artists used a more florid and graceful approach with light colours, asymmetrical designs, curves, and gilding. The Norfolk House Music Room, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, reflects the style. Neoclassicism was born in Rome in the mid-18th century, a revival of the styles and spirit of classic antiquity, it spread across Europe and coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment. British painting only achieved a national tradition in the 18th century from Hogarth in the 1720s to Gainsborough and then Sir Joshua Reynolds.