Dark Academia Aesthetic

Julius LeBlanc Stewart (1855-1919), The Baptism, 1892, oil on canvas, 201.3 x 297.5 cm. Los Angeles County Museum of Art

academia but i’m at my 9-5 job

spending my lunch break speed reading

rotating through my collection of trousers, sweaters, and button ups

constantly brewing coffee

researching each task extensively in my spare time, just because i’m curious

bringing my own pen from home because it’s obviously the only right pen

Baroque plaster meets ancient mosaic in the baptistry of St. John Lateran, Rome.

The Heart and Soul Nebulas : Is the heart and soul of our Galaxy located in Cassiopeia? Possibly not, but that is where two bright emission nebulas nicknamed Heart and Soul can be found. The Heart Nebula, officially dubbed IC 1805 and visible in the featured image on the bottom right, has a shape reminiscent of a classical heart symbol. The Soul Nebula is officially designated IC 1871 and is visible on the upper left. Both nebulas shine brightly in the red light of energized hydrogen. Also shown in this three-color montage is light emitted from sulfur, shown in yellow, and oxygen, shown in blue. Several young open clusters of stars are visible near the nebula centers. Light takes about 6,000 years to reach us from these nebulas, which together span roughly 300 light years. Studies of stars and clusters like those found in the Heart and Soul Nebulas have focused on how massive stars form and how they affect their environment. via NASA

dark academia movies + books:

this post is from my personal tbr and to watch lists so i haven’t seen and read everything on this list but most are talked about in the dark academia community, it’ll help you understand the aesthetic better/immerse yourself in it. also some of the movies are absolute rubbish but they’re nice to laugh at so :) enjoy 

movies:

loving vincent (2017)

only lovers left alive (2013)

the dreamers (2003)

mary shelley (2017)

wilde (1997)

wuthering heights (1992)

the beguiled (2017)

picnic at hanging rock (1975)

another country (1984)

the riot club (2014)

the oxford murders (2008)

kill your darlings (2013)

dead poets society (1989)

stoker (2013)

the talented mr. ripley (1999)

little women (2019)

portrait of a lady on fire (2019)

the goldfinch (2019)

maurice (1987)

the picture of dorian gray (do Not watch the 2009 one, it is very cursed)

books:

paradise lost by john milton 

if we were villains by m. l. rio

the secret history by donna tartt

the goldfinch by donna tartt

the little friend by donna tartt 

the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde

the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde by robert louis stevenson 

killing commendatore by haruki murakami

the bell jar by sylvia plath 

ariel by sylvia plath 

the book of disquiet by fernando pessoa 

inferno by dante 

who killed mr. chippendale by mel glenn

and then there were none by agatha christie 

the winter of our discontent by john steinback 

the lake of dead languages by carol goodman

wuthering heights by emily brontë

the master and margarita by mikhail bulgakov 

brideshead revisited by evelyn waugh 

the song of achilles by madeline miller 

circe by madeline miller 

a separate peace by john knowles 

the well of loneliness by radclyffe hall 

maurice by e. m. forster 

among the bohemians by virginia nicholson 

jonathan strange and mr norrell by susanna clarke 

the greek myths by robert graves*

the twelve olympians by charles seltman*

mythos by stephen fry*

heroes by stephen fry*

the count of monte cristo by alexandre dumas 

the magicians trilogy by lev grossman 

ninth house by leigh bardugo 

interview with the vampire by anne rice 

the talented mr. ripley by partricia highsmith 

lords and ladies by sir terry pratchett 

memoirs of hadrian by marguerite yourcenar 

spqr: a history of ancient rome by mary beard*

homosexuality and civilisation by louis crompton*

house of leaves by mark z. danielewski 

the iliad by homer

odyssey by homer

metamorphoses by ovid

the oresteia by aeschylus

*these books are more like research sources

if you want more specific lists like gothic books, mystery books, magic/fantasy related, etc. let me know!

Moss Green

Photographed by Freddie Ardley - Instagram @freddieardley

landscape with a blur of conquerors, richard siken

A wall of leaves, 28-08-2021