Art and the Industrial Revolution

Book excerpt: "This pioneer investigation remains one of the most original and arresting accounts of the impact of the new industry and technology upon the landscape of England and the English mind. Drawing on his unique command of the contemporary visual and literary record, Francis Klingender analyses and documents the interaction between the sociological, scientific and cultural changes that moulded the nineteenth century. His subjects range from the development of the railways to the poetry of Erasmus Darwin, from the construction of bridges and aqueducts to the aesthetic concepts of the Sublime and the Picturesque, from the Luddite riots and the English 'navvy' to those artists most profoundly affected by the climate of the Industrial Revolution, among them John Martin, Joseph Wright of Derby, J.C. Bourne, and J.M.W. Turner." -back cover.