This book highlights the ways in which Britain and Belgium became
culturally entangled as a result of their interaction in the period
between the Napoleonic Wars and the First World War. In the course of
the nineteenth century, the battlefields of Waterloo and Ypres in
Belgium became veritable burial grounds for generations of dead British
military, indirectly leading to the most intensive ties between the two
countries. By exploring this twofold path, the author uncovers a series
of cross-influences and creative similarities within the Belgo-British
artistic community, and explores the background against which the
British national identity was constructed. Revealing unknown links
between some of the most famous artists on both sides of the channel,
such as D.G. Rossetti and Jan Van Eyck; Christina Rossetti and Fernand
Khnopff; John Millais and Pieter Breughel, and Lewis Carroll and Quentin
Massys, the book emphasises an artistic cross-fertilisation that can be
found within battlefield literature throughout the nineteenth century,
including examples from the likes of William M. Thackeray, Frances
Trollope and Charlotte Brontë. Providing a rich intercultural history of
Belgo-British relations after the battle of Waterloo, this
interdisciplinary book will appeal to scholars and students researching
history, literature, art and cultural studies.