Visions of rural England

Back in London this weekend and review the week. The rural landscape has totally changed since I grew up on a farm in west Cornwall (albeit decades ago). There certainly isn't an Arcadian countryside now - not that there ever was one, really.
Interested to see at the Tate Britain this morning that one room currently features 18th century paintings 'that helped shape a powerful mythology about British landscape.'
Some of this mythology - and a distorted picture - persists today. Most work on the land in this country now is done by migrant workers. In Cornwall though, for sure, these migrant workers remain largely invisible and the often tough realities of their lives are hidden from the rest of the population.

Back to the 18th century - painters like Stubbs, Gainsborough and Constable strove to create deliberately Arcadian landscapes.  In Reapers (1785) by Stubbs (above) the workers are spotlessly keen. The farm manager sits benignly on his horse, watching. The tower of the church, central to society at the time, can be seen on the skyline.
 And below, another rural idyll, this time from Gainsborough (1747), a peasant resting with the church tower central stage.

The Tate commentary continues: "British landscape paintings were prized for the expressive qualities and apparent truthfulness. However they often ignored the economic realities of modern country life, in favour of a sense of idyllic nostalgia which has endured until the present day."