British artists and the modernist landscape
By: Ysanne Holt
Series: British art and visual culture since 1750, new readings
Publisher: Ashgate
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT
Language: eng
Number of pages: 200
Subjects: Landscape painting, British -- 20th century; Painting, Victorian -- Great Britain; Painting, Edwardian -- Great Britain
Description: "This book demonstrates how engagement with modernism in the landscapes and rural scenes of artists like George Clausen, Philip Wilson Steer, Augustus John, Laura Knight, J.D. Fergusson and Spencer Gore corresponds to the 'non-aesthetic interests' of the period and sets up a series of imaginary geographies of sites drawn from the home counties and Cornwall to the shores of the Mediterranean. It explores their relation to the broader culture of ruralism and re-considers simple conflations between national identity, 'Englishness' and the native landscape.

The modernist scrutiny of the medium, the search for essentials, for harmony, stability and a potential order ultimately produced reassuring imagery for an age preoccupied with cultural degeneracy and bodily health - but the processes of purification were pursued at a significant cost."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [183]-192) and index