“On entering this tremendous chasm an immense cliff overhangs the traveller and strikes the mind with considerable terror. Even in a light gale the sound of the wind is awful; each winter the appearance of the place alters as stones are continuously falling in immense fragments.” When English artist Charles Tomkins described Blackgang chine in the Isle of Wight in 1796, it was a spectacular coastal ravine almost a kilometre long. After 200 years of erosion and landslides, the chine has almost disappeared. Yet the vanished views painted by Tomkins and his fellow artists are of more than historical interest. For coastal engineers and planners, old artworks provide a helpful dose of perspective.
IN THE mid-18th century, gentlemen with lots of money and little to do would take themselves off to Europe for the Grand Tour. In Paris, they polished their social skills. In Italy, they admired the ruins, learned about classical architecture and studied old masters. In 1789, the French Revolution put a stop to all that. Britain was at war with France for the best part of the next quarter of a century, and the continent was closed to travellers. Stuck at home, gentlemen of leisure swapped culture for the countryside and ruins for remote and rugged landscapes – places where those who liked to stretch their minds as well as their legs could dabble in the fashionable new science of geology. Where wealthy travellers went, writers and artists in need of patrons followed.
The new breed of traveller headed north to the glacier-scoured Lake District and the mountains of northern Wales and Scotland. For drama and variety they went south to the Isle of Wight, just a short boat ride off the coast of southern England. For the geologically inclined, the island had everything: “The northern side is marked by all that is lovely, rich and picturesque; the southern side… abounds in bold wild rocks, precipitous projections, ravines, fearful chasms,” wrote author and engraver William Cooke in 1808.
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What started as a trickle of artists became a flood as the island’s popularity grew. The formation of the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1815 drew wealthy sailing enthusiasts and each new member was required to donate a work of art. Villas sprang up in secluded spots with sea views. The fashion for sea bathing saw fishing villages transformed into elegant Regency resorts. Queen Victoria was so taken with the place that she established a royal residence there – increasing the island’s cachet and prompting a rash of development. All these new homes had blank walls to fill, and visitors wanted illustrated guides and souvenir prints.
For Robin McInnes, who runs the island-based consultancy Coastal and Geotechnical Services, the Isle of Wight’s popularity with artists coupled with its dramatically changing coastline made it the perfect place to test his hunch that art could provide coastal engineers and planners with something they badly lacked: hindsight. As elsewhere, the UK faces a growing threat to its coastline as climate change and rising sea levels bring stormier weather, bigger waves and more frequent sea surges. Erosion is accelerating, landslides are more frequent and flooding is on the increase. In the past, the answer was to concrete the coast, throwing up more and bigger sea walls, breakwaters and groynes. But hard defences simply shifted the problem along the coast, and often disrupted the processes that create natural defences such as beaches, sand spits and shingle banks. “In recent years, there’s been a shift in philosophy about how to manage the coast,” says McInnes. “There’s a realisation that we must work with nature. To do that we need a better understanding of the natural processes that shape the coast.”
That’s where a longer view would help. “We have lots of sophisticated tools for monitoring how the coast is changing now. Old maps can provide some useful information about the past – but they are often inaccurate,” says McInnes. “There’s nothing that enables us to look back centuries – except perhaps artworks.” The question was which artists left an accurate record of the landscape?
“There’s nothing that allows us to look back centuries – except art”
With backing from The Crown Estate and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, who drew or painted the Isle of Wight and the adjacent stretch of England’s south coast between 1770 and 1920. A search of national and local collections produced a list of 1482 works by 325 artists, from sketches by the great Regency caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson and major works by J. M. W. Turner to engravings by local artists. Initial screening whittled the number of potentially helpful artists down to 87.
Coming up with a practical shortlist of artists that planners and engineers could consult with confidence was harder. McInnes devised a ranking system in which he scored artists for accuracy of style, the medium they worked in, and their subject matter. To verify accuracy, he checked how artists portrayed familiar landmarks, cross-checked different artists’ versions of the same scene, and compared later paintings with photographs.
Artistic style varied between artists and according to the fashion of the day. Caricaturists such as Rowlandson focused more on people than places, earning them a low score. Painters who followed the Italian “picturesque” tradition chose the right views but exaggerated key features, losing them marks. Seascapes and yacht paintings rarely showed much of the coast, but what they did show tended to be topographically accurate, which upped their score. Detailed depictions of coastal scenery scored still higher and top marks went to Pre-Raphaelite painters who aspired to capture nature in precise detail.
The artist’s medium also influenced accuracy. Oil paintings generally lack detail, while engravings and watercolours are more precise. “Watercolourists liked to record in detail, like a photograph,” says McInnes.
Subject mattered most of all. Artists who painted views of beaches or cliffs scored higher than those who preferred general coastal scenes but top scores went to artists whose paintings included details of shore level, beach profiles or the geology of cliffs.
After totting up the scores, McInnes shortlisted 22 artists whose work was informative enough to provide a . Neither Rowlandson nor Turner made the cut. Tomkins failed to make it, too, if narrowly. Watercolourists dominate the list, with the top place going to John Brett, whose meticulous views show the island’s geology in minute detail. The only two painters in oils who made the list were both Pre-Raphaelite followers. One was Edward William Cooke, who painted Bonchurch Pier and Cliffs, shown above. “The location of this picture is immediately recognisable,” says McInnes. “It’s so accurate you can reliably compare the geometry of the cliff and the level of the beach with today’s conditions.”
The final 22 artists are those that have passed the “confidence test” for accuracy, says McInnes. “Those who need to know how a stretch of coast has changed can consult their works and know they are looking at the coast as it was at that time.” McInnes believes the same approach would work for other parts of the UK and Europe where artists were active.
Jonathan Potts, a specialist in coastal policy at the University of Portsmouth, UK, thinks art can also help hammer home the message that the coast is constantly changing. “You can monitor erosion and measure beaches and then tell people how the coast is changing. But these artworks often show the dynamic nature of the coast better than anything else. They’re dramatic and immediate and because some are familiar, even much-loved paintings, they can jolt people into taking notice.” Those fighting to prevent homes falling into the sea or campaigning for new sea walls are often fighting a losing battle. “Change is an inherent part of the environment around the coast and in many cases we have to live with it. Here’s a way of showing people that,” says Potts. “Paintings can remind everyone that the coast is constantly evolving and that when it comes to managing the coastal zone, we need to take that into account.”
