I. Random facts in History
Saint George, English national hero was born in Cappadocia in the 3rd century AC. He was likely to be a Roman officer who was executed for refusing to make a sacrifice in honor of the pagan gods. The Saint George cross started to represent England under the reign of Henry VIII. Georgia was also named after Saint George, due to the popularity that the saint raised amongst Georgian people. The Anglo-Saxons, a cultural group with German descendancy (Saxony), were present in Britain from 455 to 1066. They got in touch with the pre-existing roman britain culture and got along with it. They lasted till the battle of Hasting of 1066 when they were defeated by the Norman French. The battle lasted only for one day. Normans ruled England for the next 300 years. The Hundred Years' War was a period of British history that saw the kingdom of England and France constantly fighting each other since the origin of the English royal family which was French-Norman. The French victory ended all English possession on the continent and led to the rejection of everything related to France in England (except the language, partly still used). Henry the VIII was the king of England between 1509 and 1547. Mostly famous for 6 marriages, the execution of his wife and for having started the English reformation when pope Clement VII refused to cancel one of his marriages. The consequence of the reformation was the separation of the English Church from the Catholic Church. The divine right of the king grew in exchange of papal supremacy. English civil wars were mostly three political conflicts between the monarchists, represented by Charles I and the parliamentarians of the New Model Army, represented by Oliver Cromwell. Those conflicts affected the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. Monarchists were defeated in 1649 and the defeat led to the execution of Charles I and the foundation of the Commonwealth of England. The East India company was settled around 1600 to trade commodities as cotton, silk, sugar, salt, spices and tea in the Indian ocean region and east Asia. With the company the British empire of India also sees its debut. The company gained more and more power, assuming direct control of India around 1868. The British empire “the empire of which the sun never sets” was probably the largest empire in history and became a fully global power involving around 400 millions people. The empire saw its decline after the world wars that affected Europe in the XX century.
II. Truth to nature
William Turner, probably the most famous painter of England, was a romantic painter. Born from a lower-middle-class family, he had a very complex, introverted and skeptical personality. In his life, Turner traveled intensively through Europe and was recognised as a painter of superior level mostly from an art critic called John Ruskin. As a romantic painter, he focused intensively on the force of nature, landscape and natural phenomena. Turner could be probably mentioned as one of the first impressionist and modern painters. John Ruskin as a thinker was extremely influential. In his Modern Painters (1843), he affirmed that the main role of the artist is the “truth to nature”. He also supported the pre-Raphaelities, leaving them a strong influence on their works.
III. pre-Raphaelites
The pre-Raphaelites movement was formed by a group of English painters in 1848. The group was standing for intensity and complexion of production, rejecting mannerism (distortion, asymmetry and tension), a movement that was born in contraposition to classical poses, mostly “corrupted” by the work of Raphael (at least according to them).
Ophelia (John Everett Millais, 1851) can be seen as one of the most beautiful examples of this movement. The intensity, the brightness and the abundance of details in the picture are an example of pre-Raphaelites style. The sweetness in which death is represented, the softness in juxtaposition to the hardness of life, the way Ophelia lets herself go slowly, compliantly and erotically into the abyss. The way their clothes are slowly filled by water, reminds me a bit of the defeated way in which Virginia Wolf decided to walk into the river, with her pockets full of stones, for one last epic walk into the darkness.
IV. William Blake
Another romantic English hero is Willam Blake. Romanticism has a strong focus on the individual and his emotions and on the relation with nature. The movement was born partly as a reaction against industrialisation. Blake had a very personal opinion on things and was sometimes seen as an eccentric madman. Blake was very much involved in social politics and despised religion, inventing his own mythology and creating a sort of a new age. Very interesting is also his concept expressed on Vala, where he sees every person with two identities one good and one bad.
V. Chatterton suicidé, quant à moi Ça ne va plus très bien
During romanticism, another important figure was the poet Thomas Chatterton. He lived a very short and miserable life, poisoning himself for not being able to earn enough to carry a decent life.
His death was beautifully represented by Henry Wallis in “The death of Chatterton” (Tate Britain, 1856). Chatterton was very inspiring between many artists, Serge Gainsbourg remembered him with the song “Chatterton”.
VI. Bloomsbury Group
Prominent during the first half of the 20 century, the Bloomsbury group was a group of upper class poets and thinkers that became influential also for today's society, focusing on topics like feminism, pacifism and sexuality prioritizing individual pleasure and personal relationships. One of the most well-known figures between the members of the group was certainly Virginia Woolf.
VII. What should we do for rent?
The Camden Town Group was contemporary to the Bloomsbury group to some extent, but it was mostly related to painting. Sources of inspiration were mostly the works of Van Gogh and Gauguin and the topics were often referring to scenes of everyday life as can be seen in “Camden Town Murder” (1906-1909) by one of the most famous exponents of the movement, Walter Sickert. Furthermore, Walter Sickert could have been the mysterious identity behind the serial killer Jack the Ripper and his victims could potentially be the subjects of his paintings.
These works were also inspiring other painters like Francis Bacon, a very brutal, dark, enigmatic, introspective painter who focused mostly on human shape, distortion and emotions.
VIII. Swinging London
London West-End in the ‘60 was the European equivalent of the countercultural movement in California. Modernity, hedonism, political engagement (anti-nuclear and anti-war), art, music and fashion. Promoted by huge successful bands like the Kinks, Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Who, Cream, Small Faces, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd that invaded the American music market causing a phenomenon called British Invasion.
IX. Beatlemania
The Beatles were the most influencing band of the movement, therefore the term Beatlemania in order to remark how obsessive in people’s mind and how relevant they were for that generation and for the next. Both the Beatles and the other bands and major artists of the British Invasion movements were influenced by American Rock and Roll mostly from the ‘50.