Abstract
Ordinarily marginalized for their commercially-driven subject-matter and artisanal practices, British marine painters were presented with a new opportunity in the 1760s: a public competition encouraging them to produce aesthetically-refined "works of art" commensurate with Britain's new identity as maritime and cultural world power. Through a close analysis of the first prize-winning painting (Richard Wright's The Fishery), its problematic subject-matter (the Society of Arts' "Land-Carriage Fish Scheme"), and the competition's scandalous disintegration, this article describes the anxieties, failures, and conflicts generated by such attempts to forge a culture of refinement within a society increasingly set against itself by commercialism and competitiveness.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 405-421 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Eighteenth Century Studies |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2008 |
