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Empire to Nation: Art, History and the Visualization of Maritime Britain, 1768-1829

Category: British History
Type: Book
Author: Quilley, Geoff
Pages: 294
Publisher: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
ISBN: 9780300175684
Call number: YC.2012.b.718
Library catalog: British Library
Year: 2011
Google books link: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=qen5tgAACAAJ
Language: en
Tags: Art / European     Art / Subjects & Themes / Landscapes & Seascapes     History / Europe / Great Britain     History / Modern / 18th Century     Nature / Ecosystems & Habitats / Oceans & Seas     

Abstract:

Empire to Nation offers a new consideration of the image of the sea in British visual culture during a critical period for both the rise of the visual arts in Britain and the expansion of the nation's imperial power. It argues that maritime imagery was central to cultivating a sense of nationhood in relation to rapidly expanding geographical knowledge and burgeoning imperial ambition. At the same time, the growth of the maritime empire presented new opportunities for artistic enterprise.Β  Taking as its starting point the year 1768, which marks the foundation of the Royal Academy and the launch of Captain Cook's first circumnavigation, it asserts that this was not just an interesting coincidence but symptomatic of the relationship between art and empire. This relationship was officially sanctioned in the establishment of the Naval Gallery at Greenwich Hospital and the installation there of J. M. W. Turner's great Battle of Trafalgar in 1829, the year that closes this study. Between these two poles, the book traces a changing historical discourse that informed visual representation of maritime subjects



The research project is implemented within the framework of the Action “Supporting Postdoctoral Researchers» of the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" (Action’s Beneficiary: General Secretariat for Research and Technology), and is co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Greek State.