The Honeymoon, or Where Next? (1880), by Edward Brewtnall. Watercolour (Private Collection, image in Public Domain).
This exquisite painting is the very embodiment of optimism (or naivete?) as a young bourgeois couple decide on where to go next on their (probably Italian) sight-seeing trip and, by implication, where to take their lives. The light is brilliantly handled, and the colour-scheme carefully controlled.
Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke, Senior Editor and Editor for Book Illustration and Design [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Created 15 September 2026