In our contemporary society, functioning as a laboratory of modern alchemy, it appears that virtually anything can be metamorphosed into an art form. You might capture the simplest photograph of your lunch and transform it into a work of visual arts to be contemplated by all. However, certain skeptical minds still believe that some creations should not be considered genuine art.
But what precisely constitutes steampunk art, my dear readers? And why do some individuals seem to dismiss it like a malfunctioning mechanical contraption? Let us examine this unique form of expression more closely and see if we cannot set a few recalcitrant gears turning in minds along the way.
Definition of Steampunk Art
Steampunk art represents this fascinating synthesis between the aesthetic heritage of the Victorian era and the technological imagination of retrofuturism. Born from the creative vapors of the Industrial Revolution, it is characterized by the harmonious integration of mechanical elements—gears, steam engines, airships—into works that explore an alternative 19th century where technology might have taken a different course from our own.
For those who have yet to discover the mechanisms of our universe, steampunk is a genre of speculative science fiction that features a fantastical Victorian era, populated by majestic airships and time machines, within an alternative 19th-century history. This aesthetic magnificently integrates Victorian elegance while imagining a world where steam technology would have continued its mechanical evolution.
Cinematic Steampunk Art: Oneiric Machines in Motion
My dear steam enthusiasts, the seventh art undoubtedly constitutes the most spectacular of steampunk dream machines! Steampunk films are explored in detail in our cinematic investigation. Allow me to present three works particularly remarkable from an aesthetic perspective, true gems of our visual heritage:
- The first masterpiece I wish to bring to your attention is The City of Lost Children. This 1995 French film, a veritable poetic machine, unfolds in a post-apocalyptic steampunk world where a mad scientist kidnaps children to steal their dreams. This production is visually breathtaking, with dark and surrealistic images that imprint themselves in your memory like engravings from an ancestral clockwork mechanism. It is also a surprisingly touching story, populated by characters whom it is easy to support in their mechanical peregrinations.
- From Hell, this remarkable 2001 adaptation starring Johnny Depp, draws inspiration from Alan Moore's visionary graphic novel. This film tells the story of Jack the Ripper, but with a deliciously dark steampunk twist. Set in Victorian London, the film imagines a universe where Jack the Ripper employs black magic as a mechanism of death. From Hell constitutes an atmospheric and disturbing film, with excellent performances that function like the gears of a perfectly oiled dramatic machine.
- Finally, the ambitious adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This 2003 film follows a group of fictional literary characters—Allan Quartermain, Captain Nemo, and Dracula notably—who unite to prevent a villain from triggering World War I. While this work is certainly not exempt from mechanical flaws, it nonetheless remains an ambitious and entertaining steampunk adventure, like a promising prototype.
These examples represent merely a sampling of our rich cinematic heritage. If you seek something different from your usual films, I strongly encourage you to discover these marvels. You might be surprised by how much you'll appreciate them! Films about the Victorian era are particularly delectable for the discerning enthusiast.
Literary Steampunk Art: The Mechanical Library
Steampunk literature constitutes the intellectual foundation of our movement, like a mechanical library with perfected narrative gears! Often unfolding in alternative universes or reimagined historical periods, steampunk novels typically feature protagonists ahead of their time, who utilize technologies that won't be invented for years to come. The roots of our genre trace back to visionary authors like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne.
We have carefully curated the finest books of the Victorian era if you wish to discover these classics and other works inspired by them. While steampunk often draws inspiration from Victorian era design, steampunk literature generally adopts a more futuristic approach, like a sophisticated temporal mechanism.
We can observe this evolution in popular steampunk novels like The Difference Engine and Leviathan. In these literary works, readers are transported into alternative worlds where steam technology constitutes the technological norm, creating uchronias of fascinating mechanical richness.
Musical Steampunk Art: Mechanical Symphony
Steampunk music constitutes a highly niche and little-known genre, like a secret musical mechanism, yet some groups are extraordinary! This form of sonic expression often takes classic ragtime or jazz melodies and infuses them with a modern and industrial touch, as if one were adding steam pistons to a pianoforte. The result produces a sound that is simultaneously anachronistic and strangely timeless, like a musical mechanism transcending epochs.
Steampunk music often reflects the DIY aesthetic of the steampunk movement itself, with artists creating their own version of the genre like clockmakers composing their own mechanisms. One of the most famous steampunk albums remains "Lost Horizons" by Abney Park, which combines Victorian era sensibility with a post-apocalyptic aesthetic. The album artwork, featuring steampunk versions of classic characters such as Sherlock Holmes, perfectly reflects our mechanical aesthetic.
If you seek something new and different, my dear readers, steampunk music is truly worth discovering, like a musical mechanism awaiting to be wound!
Steampunk Architecture: Cathedrals of Iron and Steam
Definition of Retrofuturistic Architecture
Steampunk architecture represents this fascinating alternative version of the Victorian era where the Industrial Revolution progressively modified the old world with new construction practices. The grandiose, great structures, and even science fiction blend to create edifices in this particular Victorian style, like a perfectly orchestrated architectural ensemble.
The preferred materials are noble metals—copper, brass, bronze, steel—combined with wood and glass featuring impressive industrial frameworks. Often, there exists a romantic and nostalgic influence where sometimes Gothic codes blend harmoniously with its dark and mysterious universe.
Everyone can visualize this highly visual style with powerful images present in the collective imagination: great factories, sometimes gigantic glass structures like the Grand Palais. We have the privilege of contemplating realizations that seem directly extracted from the visionary works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, true prophets of our mechanical aesthetic.
During the Victorian era, the widespread availability of water machines and, later, steam machines, made the fabrication of architectural details much less labor-intensive than before. Creative ornamental details no longer required the skills of a wood sculptor, master carpenter, or stone cutter, and many architectural elements could be factory-manufactured and ordered from catalogs, like clocks or decorative statues.
Some Remarkable Examples of Steampunk Architecture
Here's an example of a modest dwelling... well, perhaps not so humble after all! The Carson Mansion in Eureka, California, was built by William Carson, owner of a local lumber company. This architectural marvel required four years of construction, at a total cost of $80,000—presumably lumber was inexpensive when you own the mill! It's generally considered to adopt the Queen Anne style, though a trained eye might detect elements from several other Victorian styles, like a composite architectural mechanism.
Carson Mansion on the left / Armour-Stiner House on the right
A simpler dwelling, but no less whimsical, is the Armour-Stiner House in Irvington, New York. This house follows a brief 1850s craze for octagonal houses, which offer the advantage of enclosing a larger area for a given perimeter wall length, and the disadvantage of geometrically bizarre room shapes. Built in 1850, it features a veranda that completely surrounds the house like a clockwork mechanism. In the 1870s, the second owner added the dome and cupola, faithfully following the octagonal scheme.
On the industrial front, the Victorians attempted to make even the most prosaic building interesting. Once the city of London finally had a functional sewage system, the Crossness Pumping Station was inaugurated in 1865 and was called "a Victorian cathedral of ironwork." Fortunately, when it was finally closed in the 1950s, it was not economical to remove the pumps, so they remained forgotten and intact, like a mechanism awaiting revival.
The steampunk building that perhaps holds the record for filming locations is the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles. I must admit that Los Angeles and Victorian architecture don't seem to go together in my mind, but apparently I was wrong! Built as an office building in 1893, it features a central atrium topped by a skylight. Ornate cast iron railings surround the atrium that rises five stories, like a majestic vertical mechanism.
Paintings and Visual Arts: Mechanical Palettes
The influence of steampunk style on visual arts is striking, my dear steam enthusiasts! Many works, which often don't even claim to be retrofuturistic, incorporate a multitude of objects and concepts that approach it, like an unconscious artistic mechanism.
Pete Amachree: The Victorian Era Sublimated
Craving a post-apocalyptic steampunk world where nature has reclaimed the Earth? Pete Amachree truly knows how to create remarkable concept art, his creations functioning like veritable visual dream machines.
"There's something I find incredibly fascinating about painting in these vast, imposing, and apparently Victorian urban landscapes. It's perhaps a mental disorder for which I should seek treatment. But for about ten years, if given the choice, that's what I'll probably end up painting."
Pete Amachree is a concept and texture artist in the film and video game industry. Living in the United Kingdom, he has worked for Cinesite as a texture artist and digital matte painter, functioning like a true image mechanic.
Didier Graffet: The Fantastic Industrial Revolution, French Style
Bravo! A French artist well known to role-players and steam enthusiasts in our region. Although his favorite themes are obviously very steampunk, the author doesn't claim the genre but rather draws inspiration from imaginary landscapes of all kinds, like a versatile creative mechanism.
Rich with a career spanning more than twenty years, he has contributed to numerous magazine covers. He has created paintings and books like Effluvium or Steampunk: Of Steam and Steel. I have the entire reissue of Jules Verne classics that he magnificently illustrated, creating true visual narrative machines.
Jakub Rozalski: A Unique Science Fiction World
J. Rozalski, originally from Kraków, Poland, draws inspiration from classical paintings and modern techniques as well as a good dose of mechanical imagination. Jakub creates the most fantastic landscapes that have even inspired a board game, functioning like a true ludic mechanism!
"The most important thing in my work is to always create a unique atmosphere through narratives, showing everyday situations in an unusual environment," explains this craftsman of mechanical imagery.
Steampunk Sculpture Art: Smiths of the Impossible
Hasan Novrozi: The Mechanical Soul of Creatures
Hasan Novrozi, a talented sculptor trained in Iran, has created a wonderful collection of steampunk animal sculptures that are full of life and emotion, despite being meticulously assembled from thousands of metal pieces, like a complex vital mechanism.
In addition to his epic statue of Pegasus, he has also created other creatures in a variety of styles, all of striking mechanical beauty! His animal sculptures remind us that beauty can arise from the most complex assembly, like the gears of a precision clock.
Igor Verny: The Alchemy of Metal and Life
An artist who creates steampunk animals from old car parts, watches, and electronic devices. When working with metal, it takes a true master to bring one's work to life, like a clockmaker of the impossible!
"Don't hesitate to dream childishly about inaccessible things, as this always pushes people to move forward," this genius craftsman tells us. Russian artist Igor Verny does exactly that with his beautiful and elegant articulated steampunk animal sculptures. Their moving parts and Verniy's attention to detail make them alive, like mechanical creatures truly breathing.
Sue Beatrice: Artistic Clockmaking
Behold Sue Beatrice's sculptures, entirely composed of recycled watch parts! These magnificent steampunk art sculptures are part of the All Natural Arts project, created by American artist and designer Sue Beatrice, a true alchemist of mechanical time.
The project encompasses sculpture, painting, and environmentally friendly jewelry making. This unique art form combines talent and imagination with love of nature, functioning like a perfectly orchestrated ecological mechanism.
Steampunk Decoration Elevated to Art
A popular decorative style that combines steampunk aesthetics with elements of metallurgy, painting, and other world styles. This decorative approach often features a great variety of metal artworks, paintings, and other decorative items inspired by our mechanical universe. The community even possesses a well-developed tendency toward homemade creation or DIY, like a domestic clockmaking workshop!
Many art enthusiasts enjoy collecting objects themed around the Industrial Revolution and its steam engines close to science fiction, and some even use steampunk art to decorate their homes in a style inspired by the Victorian era, creating true domestic museums.
If you seek steampunk decoration ideas, don't hesitate to consult our article on 14 tips for perfect decoration for inspiration. You will also find in the decoration collection, clocks, steampunk lamps, paintings, and other remarkable steampunk objects.