Where the Sea Meets the Land: Artists on the Coast in Nineteenth-century Britain

Napoleon's planned invasion in the early years of the century focused attention on the coast as a defensive boundary. Coastal geology and marine biology provided much of the evidence used in the disputes over theories of evolution which led to the publication of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" in 1859. Meanwhile, the British invention of the seaside holiday gradually worked its way down the social scale. The author explores artists' responses to the coast and looks at the different ways politicians, toursits, theologians, poets and scientists would have viewed the coast. She shows how the images fit into the wider narratives of responses to social change and the transformation of religious belief. Special attention is paid to the development of lighthouses and lifeboats, and to the interest in the social organisation of fishing villages, both of which provided important subject matter for artists. - Publisher