This book is a biography of the dominant British marine painter of his period, chronicling the naval history of epic years in print and painting. Born in France, travelling the world as a young man, brought to England as a prisoner-of-war, Dominic Serres became the dominant British marine painter of his period. Working initially with the print publishers who were recording the actions of the Seven Years' War, Serres soon attracted the patronage of the leading naval commanders of his day which was to occupy him for the rest of his life. His prolific output showed a similar evolution in content from early landscapes to the predominantly maritime subjects his distinguished patrons prescribed. He remained a landscapist at heart and included these features whenever he could. A founder member of the Royal Academy and Marine Painter to King George III, he played his part in a crucial period of development in British painting and of growing national awareness through colonial wars in the Americas and world-wide. This is the first biography of Dominic Serres and is the result of extensive research. It assembles over two hundred reproductions of Serres' work by means of which the painter's style and content are analysed and the vivid images of his patrons' moments of glory related to the historical and naval artistic and expatriate communities and his close family life are also examined to produce a fully rounded view of the man and his art.
Data pubblicazione
01/01/2001