Spirit of England Part 13

Green and Pleasant Land

Chris Beetles Gallery, Ryder Street, London

21 - 28 September 2020

Our popular series encapsulating the Spirit of England returns, as we seek the quality of great Victorians to celebrate our Green and Pleasant Land.

Myles Birket Foster, Helen Allingham and contemporaries such as Alfred William Hunt and Rose Barton were cultural superstars in their day as much as Banksy and Hirst are now, and after two centuries they are as important as ever and continue to enchant and encourage.

Of course, there was Diphtheria behind the cottage door, Tuberculosis in the oppressive factories and fewer living long enough to even encounter risks of obesity, diabetes and dementia.

But ... now as then Victorian artists give us the visual balm of joy in nature in all its glorious moods, vicarious travel to satisfy our curiosity, and the quotidian comfort of fulfilling work and leisure.

Myles Birket Foster and Helen Allingham scenes are sentimental and idealistic but are essentially optimistic. It may not be social realism but is more cheering than the dismal nightly ululations of Robert Peston or the opinionated squawk of Laura Kuenssberg passing themselves off as objective news reporters to feed neurosis and nightmares in time of plagues.