This section ranges across the central area of England, from the wilds
of the Peak District via the industrialised Black Country to the idyll
of the Cotswolds.
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It begins by looking at the eighteenth century 'discovery' of the Midlands
in the art of George Stubbs and Joseph Wright
of Derby.
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It features works from Stubbs' famous Lion and Horse series of paintings,
which used the Cresswell Crags on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire borders
as a setting.
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Joseph Wright reflected the modern dynamism of his county, Derbyshire,
in extraordinary works such as An Iron Forge, lent by the State Hermitage
Museum, St Petersburg .
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Philip De Loutherbourg's iconic Coalbrookdale at Night
takes Wright's industrial subject matter but gives his Staffordshire scene
an infernal quality, suggestive of dark powers over which it was felt
man might no longer have total control.
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By contrast, many artists and writers in the later nineteenth century,
such as John Ruskin, William Morris and members of the Arts and Crafts
Movement and John Singer Sargent, found their ideal pastoral setting in
the Cotswolds region.
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