Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(See “Tate Britain Overview” map,
here
.)
Newfangled inventions were everywhere. Railroads laced the land. You could fall asleep
in Edinburgh and wake up in London, a trip that used to take days or weeks. But along
with technology came factories coating towns with soot, urban poverty, regimentation, and
clock-punching. Machines replaced honest laborers, and once-noble Man was viewed as a
naked ape.
Strangely, you'll see little of the modern world in paintings of the time—except in re-
action to it. Many artists rebelled against “progress” and the modern world. They escaped
the dirty cities to commune with nature (Constable and the Romantics). Or they found a
new spirituality in intense human emotions (dramatic scenes from history or literature).
Or they left the modern world altogether.
• The work of William Blake may be displayed in a dedicated room on the other side of the
central sculpture hall.
