Smugglers, Poachers and Wreckers in Nineteenth-Century English Painting

This paper looks at the representation, in art, of three groups of people whose activities in the countryside and on the coast aroused conflicting reactions: moralists saw them as a threat to the social order, but they were rarely regarded as criminal within their own communities, and their status d...

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Main Author: Christiana Payne
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée 2005-12-01
Series:Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/cve/14124
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author Christiana Payne
author_facet Christiana Payne
author_sort Christiana Payne
collection DOAJ
description This paper looks at the representation, in art, of three groups of people whose activities in the countryside and on the coast aroused conflicting reactions: moralists saw them as a threat to the social order, but they were rarely regarded as criminal within their own communities, and their status depended on laws which many saw as unjust, or which were subject to change. Paintings of poachers were usually didactic in tone, representing the poacher as guilty and ashamed; the smuggler, however, was depicted in a much more positive light, as a heroic ‘free trader’; while wreckers were sometimes shown as poor people exercising their right to subsistence, sometimes as relics of a savage past, before the improvements brought about by lighthouses and lifeboats. J. M. W. Turner, David Wilkie, Edwin Landseer and Charles Napier Hemy are amongst the artists discussed.
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2271-6149
language English
publishDate 2005-12-01
publisher Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
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series Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
spelling doaj-art-a673bc9a21784de982f0e20db2d2402f2025-01-30T10:21:26ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492005-12-016110.4000/11s9bSmugglers, Poachers and Wreckers in Nineteenth-Century English PaintingChristiana PayneThis paper looks at the representation, in art, of three groups of people whose activities in the countryside and on the coast aroused conflicting reactions: moralists saw them as a threat to the social order, but they were rarely regarded as criminal within their own communities, and their status depended on laws which many saw as unjust, or which were subject to change. Paintings of poachers were usually didactic in tone, representing the poacher as guilty and ashamed; the smuggler, however, was depicted in a much more positive light, as a heroic ‘free trader’; while wreckers were sometimes shown as poor people exercising their right to subsistence, sometimes as relics of a savage past, before the improvements brought about by lighthouses and lifeboats. J. M. W. Turner, David Wilkie, Edwin Landseer and Charles Napier Hemy are amongst the artists discussed.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/14124
spellingShingle Christiana Payne
Smugglers, Poachers and Wreckers in Nineteenth-Century English Painting
Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
title Smugglers, Poachers and Wreckers in Nineteenth-Century English Painting
title_full Smugglers, Poachers and Wreckers in Nineteenth-Century English Painting
title_fullStr Smugglers, Poachers and Wreckers in Nineteenth-Century English Painting
title_full_unstemmed Smugglers, Poachers and Wreckers in Nineteenth-Century English Painting
title_short Smugglers, Poachers and Wreckers in Nineteenth-Century English Painting
title_sort smugglers poachers and wreckers in nineteenth century english painting
url https://journals.openedition.org/cve/14124
work_keys_str_mv AT christianapayne smugglerspoachersandwreckersinnineteenthcenturyenglishpainting