Making Waves: Artists in Southwold

From Turner to Damien Hirst via Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Stanley Spencer and Lucian Freud Southwold has drawn some of the biggest names in British art and a wealth of distinctive talents. Most have found magic here. A few have noted something darker. The port-resort with brewery, pier and lighthouse at its heart is a creative beacon: Philip Wilson Steer, fresh from France, virtually invented British Impressionism in the adjoining artists’ summer colony of Walberswick from 1884 – the year pioneering photographer P.H. Emerson moved to Southwold. Ian Collins also reveals how modern British art so nearly had a Suffolk rather than a Cornish air. Most of all this book lovingly portrays a very special place through the eyes and lives of artists, both resident and visiting. It revels in waves of art taking in everything from serious treasures to cartoon postcards: an essential companion for all lovers of East Anglia’s first resort.

Condition: Very good