Freedom and Plenty: England through Foreign Eyes

To visiting Europeans during the second quarter of the eighteenth century, England appeared a haven of intellectual freedom and material prosperity. Beginning with Voltaire's description of his arrival at Greenwich in 1726, we hear how continental thinkers reacted to English developments in commerce, agriculture, philosophy, science, literature, painting and music. The patriotic symbolism of the Royal Naval Hospital's Painted Hall, the aristocracy's interest in trade as typified by Mr and Mrs Andrews in Gainsborough's portrait, political corruption and satire as shown in Hogarth's engravings and in The Beggar's Opera, sculptures of Handel and Pope - these and many other examples demonstrate the ascent of both realism and classicism in the arts. And they also express the happiness of the Englishman who was free - or so it seemed to envious foreigners - to speak his mind, rise through the class system, and gorge himself on the roast beef of Old England.

© 1998-2001 The Roland Collection & Pira Intl.