British Art and the Environment Changes, Challenges, and Responses Since the Industrial Revolution

This book explores the nature of Britain-based artists’ engagement with the transformations of their environment since the early days of the Industrial Revolution. At a time of pressing ecological concerns, the international group of contributors provide a series of case studiesthat reconsider the nature–culture divide and aim at identifying the contours of a national narrativethat stretches from enclosed lands to rising seas. By adopting a longer historical view, this book hopes to enrich current debates concerning art’s engagement with recording and questioning the impact of human activity on the environment. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, contemporary art, environmental humanities, and British studies.

PART 1 From the Claude Glass to Drones: Framing Environmental Encounters 1 Vehicles of Truth: Portable Studios and Nineteenth-Century British Landscape Painting, 1856–1885 Amy C. Wallace 2 Painting Fog: James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s Blurred Visions of the London Atmosphere Laura Valette 3 Aerial Ontologies Paul Cureton 4 An Interview with Tim Martin Charlotte Gould and Sophie Mesplède PART 2 Areas of Outstanding Industrial Beauty? A Layered History of Reappropriation and Profitability 5 "It’s Grim Up North": Depicting Mutations and Shifting Perceptions of Industrial Landscapes in the North of England Aurore Caignet 6 "Our Oil": Our Waves? Environment, Energy Transition, and Art in Twenty-First-Century Scotland Camille Manfredi 7 Managing Arcadia: From the King’s Cross Estate to the Bretton Estate Pat Naldi 8 An Interview with Adrian George Charlotte Gould And Sophie Mesplède PART 3 Decentering Human Vision: Art in a Shared Environment 9 Pursuing Natural Beauty: The Artist as a Hunter in Eighteenth-Century British Art Sophie Mesplède 10 "A New and Unforeseen Creation": Turner, English Landscape, and the Anthropo(s)cene Frédéric Ogée 11 The Human Landscape: John Ruskin, Drawing, and Colour Thomas Hughes 12 A Matter of Time: Transformative Sculptures by Marc Quinn, Zuzanna Janin, Anya Gallaccio, and Andy Goldsworthy Kasia Ozga 13 Brexit, Gender, and Northern Ireland’s Supernatural Landscape: Ursula Burke’s "A False Dawn" and Candida Powell-Williams’ "Command Lines" Edwin Coomasaru

Charlotte Gould is Senior Lecturer in British contemporary art at Sorbonne Nouvelle, France. Sophie Mesplède is Senior Lecturer in eighteenth-century British art at the University of Rennes 2, France.