This display contains seascapes and coastal scenes painted between the 1740s and the 1840s. Marine painting was one of the most conspicuous developments in British art during the eighteenth century. This reflected the country’s rapid mercantile and imperial expansion. Inspiration initially came from Holland and, more directly, from two Dutchmen: Willem van de Velde and his son of the same name. They both settled in England and in 1674 were appointed official painters to Charles II. Their influence continued into the nineteenth century.

Storms and shipwrecks had always featured in marine painting. But from the 1750s, aesthetic theories of ‘the Sublime’, and in particular man’s helpless struggle against the power of Nature, had a great impact on art. The ‘storm tossed ship’ became a metaphor for the social and political upheavals that swept Europe, above all during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Such images differ dramatically from the tranquillity of a number of paintings included here, where the nation’s coastline is portrayed as a safe haven. The paintings shown here are not simply images of particular places. They underline the complex relationship between an island nation, its coast and the sea, touching upon themes of security and invasion, recreation and industry, national history and identity.

This display has been devised by curator Christine Riding

BP British Art Displays 1500-2005