Osborne House in the context of "Italianate"

The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture with picturesque aesthetics. The resulting style of architecture was essentially of its own time. "The backward look transforms its object," Siegfried Giedion wrote of historicist architectural styles; "every spectator at every period—at every moment, indeed—inevitably transforms the past according to his own nature."

The Italianate style was first developed in Britain in about 1802 by John Nash, with the construction of Cronkhill in Shropshire. This small country house is generally accepted to be the first Italianate villa in England, from which is derived the Italianate architecture of the late Regency and early Victorian eras. The Italianate style was further developed and popularised by the architect Sir Charles Barry in the 1830s. Barry's Italianate style (occasionally termed "Barryesque") drew heavily for its motifs on the buildings of the Italian Renaissance, though sometimes at odds with Nash's semi-rustic Italianate villas.

Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India, died on 22 January 1901 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, at the age of 81. At the time of her death, she was the longest-reigning monarch in British history. Her state funeral took place on 2 February 1901. It was one of the largest gatherings of European royalty.

The Royal Pavilion (also known as the Brighton Pavilion) and its surrounding gardens form a Grade I listed former royal residence located in Brighton, England. Beginning in 1787, it was built in three stages as a seaside retreat for George, Prince of Wales, who became the Prince Regent in 1811, and King George IV in 1820. It is built in the Indo-Saracenic style prevalent in India for most of the 19th century. The current appearance, with its Mughal inspired features such as bulbous domes, chhatri-topped minarets and cusped arches, is the work of the architect John Nash, who extended the building starting in 1815. George IV's successors William IV and Victoria also used the Pavilion, but Queen Victoria decided that Osborne House should be the royal seaside retreat, and the Pavilion was sold to the city of Brighton in 1850.

Cronkhill, Atcham, Shropshire, designed by John Nash, is "the earliest Italianate villa in England".

Drawing on influences from the Italian Campagna and the Picturesque, including the art of Claude Lorrain, it began an architectural style that was hugely influential in England in the first half of the nineteenth century. Major examples include Trentham Park and Osborne House. Nash's "most original building", it is Grade I listed.