English landscape painting is often said to be an eighteenth-century
invention, yet when we look for representations of the countryside in
British art and literature, we find a story that begins with Old English
poetry and winds its way through history, all the way up to the present
day.
In Spirit of Place, Susan Owens illuminates how the British landscape
has been framed, reimagined, and reshaped by generations of creative
thinkers. To offer a panoramic view of the countryside throughout
history, Owens dives into the work of writers and artists from Bede and
the Gawain Poet to Thomas Gainsborough, Jane Austen, J. M. W. Turner,
and John Constable, and from Paul Nash and Barbara Hepworth to Robert
Macfarlane. Richly illustrated, including manuscript pages, early maps,
paintings, film stills, and photographs, Spirit of Place is a
compelling narrative of how we have been shown the British landscape.