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hdggriffith's review
5.0
gorgeous book, delicious span across centuries of British landscape in art and literature.
harrietbrown's review
informative
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Beautiful book and well written. Could not tell you what it was really trying to argue.
bethstorey's review
5.0
Spirit of Place weaves a path of exploration throughout the history of the depiction of landscape in British history. This book is not so much a history of the depiction of landscape and more a look at how feeling towards the British landscape has changed and how art and literature have reflected this. Therein lies the joy of this book. Today there is a familiarity with how enlightenment views and a better understanding of the landscape through cartography and the work of the Ordnance Survey, influenced the nation to become more interested in landscape. This period saw the careers of artists like Turner and Constable flourish. Any person who has visited a British gallery can see how the Victorians and Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood immersed themselves in the romance and poetry of a long haired maiden walking through a woodland, harking back to the so called ‘purity’ of our medieval history.
But there is so much more to enjoy and discover within this book especially looking at how different factors have shaped reactions towards the British landscapes. How the Anglo-Saxon’s held a suspicious hostility towards the landscape due to the danger and exposed nature of the roads available to them. How Daniel Defoe was more moved by the sight of bales of recently woven cloth drying on the side of a valley in industrial Yorkshire than he was by the crags of the Peak District. These earlier views about our landscapes were shaped and developed by the exploration of artists and writers and led us to the appreciation and desire for conservation that dominates our contemporary view of our green and pleasant land.
Furthermore here are excellent examples of Twentieth Century landscape art and how the constancy and ageless beauty of English fields and meadows, peaks and woods have been explored and re-invented by John Piper, A. E Houseman, Derek Jarman, Ted Hughes, Paul Nash and Eric Ravilious. These iconic words and images of the British Landscapes were born from some of the most traumatic periods of the century. These sections are a joy to read and are a reminder that although landscape art has not always been the most revered in the pantheon of art history, in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century, British artists and writers were producing work about and sometimes within the landscapes that we call home.
Reading the book is like walking through the most perfectly curated exhibition where somehow, mountains, lakes, wild heath land, and pastoral farmland have been captured and displayed by some of the best artists and Writers the country has had to offer.
Of course, Thames and Hudson have published this book beautifully, the illustrations, photographs and full colour reproductions of paintings make the book a beautiful volume and a title that readers will want to pick back up off the shelf again and again. There is a little piece of joy to read and look at on every page.
But there is so much more to enjoy and discover within this book especially looking at how different factors have shaped reactions towards the British landscapes. How the Anglo-Saxon’s held a suspicious hostility towards the landscape due to the danger and exposed nature of the roads available to them. How Daniel Defoe was more moved by the sight of bales of recently woven cloth drying on the side of a valley in industrial Yorkshire than he was by the crags of the Peak District. These earlier views about our landscapes were shaped and developed by the exploration of artists and writers and led us to the appreciation and desire for conservation that dominates our contemporary view of our green and pleasant land.
Furthermore here are excellent examples of Twentieth Century landscape art and how the constancy and ageless beauty of English fields and meadows, peaks and woods have been explored and re-invented by John Piper, A. E Houseman, Derek Jarman, Ted Hughes, Paul Nash and Eric Ravilious. These iconic words and images of the British Landscapes were born from some of the most traumatic periods of the century. These sections are a joy to read and are a reminder that although landscape art has not always been the most revered in the pantheon of art history, in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century, British artists and writers were producing work about and sometimes within the landscapes that we call home.
Reading the book is like walking through the most perfectly curated exhibition where somehow, mountains, lakes, wild heath land, and pastoral farmland have been captured and displayed by some of the best artists and Writers the country has had to offer.
Of course, Thames and Hudson have published this book beautifully, the illustrations, photographs and full colour reproductions of paintings make the book a beautiful volume and a title that readers will want to pick back up off the shelf again and again. There is a little piece of joy to read and look at on every page.
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