Napoleonic History

By 1803, the growing aggression of Napoleonic France brought Britain to war with the European continent, lasting until 1815 with the Battle of Waterloo and the defeat of Napoleonic forces. This period was tumultuous, not least in terms of physical security and the economy, but also for defining Britishness. The importance of Britain as a physical place contributed to the formation of a specific national identity, especially in contrast to the Continent. This connection (between land and national identity) elevated the profile of landscape artworks. Continuing the aesthetics of the Picturesque, a British genre, artists illustrated and heightened the idea of Britishness in its landscape art.

While artists were developing prints of both England and continental landscapes before the Napoleonic Wars began, the conflict closed off the Continent to British tourists.¹ Turning inwards to their domestic landscapes, less out of choice than due to lack of an alternative, altered the implications of the Picturesque depictions of England. The Picturesque style developed partially out of a British reaction to French landscaping trends (developed in the 17^th century).² The Picturesque style favours a depiction of nature in its "natural" state: trees, shrubs, and grasses are allowed to grow without intervention, but also are in concord with man's dominion. French landscaping, on the other hand, tended to be highly geometric and cultivated, best seen in the gardens of Versailles. The Picturesque elevated a depiction of nature that highlighted geometric imperfections but was also perfect for the traveller. In other words, despite non-geometrically shaped bushes and shrubs, this nature was never in the way of man.

The Picturesque genre developed in contrast to French landscaping traditions. Jane Austen, in her 1815 novel Emma, describes the nationalistic sentiment of the Picturesque in her description of Mr Knightly's home: "it was a sweet view, sweet to the eye and the mind. It was English verdure, English culture, English comfort.”³ This description, a popular citation in discussions of the Picturesque tradition in Britain, shows the intersection between British land and Britishness.⁴ Developed before the rise of Napoleon, the Picturesque is based on its difference to French landscaping. The wars with France only aggrandized this nationalistic sentiment.

Picturesque Views

During the Napoleonic Wars, there was a proliferation of Picturesque depictions of British cities and vistas. York gained greater importance in the British imagination and was a popular subject for landscape artworks. Unlike London, York did not have the foreign entanglements as it was not the political centre of the country, lending it a more specifically British sentiment. With its rich history through Roman, Norman, Medieval, and Royalist foundations, York embodied the breadth of British history. York is also home to the Minster, which is a monument to the city’s medieval past. These factors bolstered York as a nationalistic city during the Napoleonic Wars.

In James Basire's York from Screvus’s Hill, J.P. Neale’s For 'The Beauties of England and Wales' and G. Stonley’s York Cathedral, the elements of the Picturesque are clear. These prints position the imaginary viewer in a pastoral field or at a river’s edge with their gaze directed at the York Minster featured in the background. Grazing cattle and sheep feature in two of these works, which elevate the idea of the continuing rustic character of York. Stanfield’s addition of a shed and an Arcadian figure in the right side of the print furthers the discourse around this sort of charm and way of life. Interestingly, none of these works confront the Enclosures of the period in Yorkshire: there are no clear hedgerows or similar natural barriers that divide the land. When not viewing these works with a critical eye, we are led to believe in the unaffected, unindustrialized status of the pictured land. Similarly, viewers of these works in the early 19^th century were offered a similar conception, particularly those viewers who were not local to York: the land was unaffected by Enclosure (and thus Enclosure could occur further here).

The inclusion of lush and productive fields overlooking York, however, is not the singular Picturesque aspect of these prints. The artistic decisions taken by these three artists – Cave, Neale and Stonley – represented the York landscape as moral. In Cave’s print, the clouds part and a light source illuminates the Minster featured in the background. Neale’s depiction of the Minster works similarly to Cave's work as he depicts the clouds in a lighter fashion around the cathedral, illuminating it. Stonley’s places clouds behind the Minster, providing an uninterrupted connection between the Minster and the heavens. In taking such artistic license in the composition of these prints, these artists communicated the moral righteousness of the Minster, a church of England. This religious difference would be significant for the Georgian British viewer, given the unique tie between church and state in Anglicanism and its historic contrast to the Catholic Church, Napoleon’s church.

Whether the clouds part or illuminate the Minster, or God's rays extend downward to the cathedral, such a commentary extends to the representation of nature in the sweeping fields of these prints. If God blessed the Minster, as these artists suggest, then the environment in which the Minster is placed corresponds to a similar approval. This nature is an untarnished, unmanipulated one: it is bountiful and represented as growing based on its natural course. The sweeping fields in Cave's and Stonley’s works are not landscapes experiencing the wrath of divine intervention but of approval.

This divinely connoted British landscape via the Picturesque is all the clearer when French landscaping preferences are understood. The cultivated, manipulated landscape style seen at Versailles is at odds with Picturesque nature. While Napoleon favoured landscapers, like Jean-Marie Morel (1728-1810), who was inspired by Anglophonic landscaping, the reputation of Versailles characterized understanding of French landscaping.⁵ To represent York in this Picturesque way, with nature growing 'naturally', was to connote it as quintessentially British and moral because it was not French.

Picturesque views of York during this period underscores the Britishness of the city and its importance in the British imagination. These views disseminate a perspective of York that highlights its historical past, via the Minster, but also its harmonious, morally inflected and quintessentially British present. These works, created by British artists who could not visit the continent, situate York as a symbol of Britishness and as dichotomous with French landscape. The subtle nationalism that led to the creation of the Picturesque achieved new heights in the context of the Napoleonic wars.