John Brett: Man of War Rocks, Coast of Dorset, 1884

image courtesy of Yale Center for British Art

John Brett (1831-1902) is best known for his early Pre-Raphaelite paintings, The Stonebreaker and Val d’Aosta, and his late seascapes of the coast of Scotland, Wales and the West Country. He entered the Royal Academy schools in 1853, but was more interested in the ideas of John Ruskin and William Holman Hunt, whom he met through his friend the poet Coventry Patmore. Inspired by Hunt's ideal of scientific landscape painting Brett visited Switzerland, where he worked on topographical landscapes.Brett was also a keen astronomer, having studied the subject from childhood. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1871. He was also a founder member of the Art Workers' Guild and Master in 1890.

Man of War Bay lies on the Dorset coast in southern England and is flanked by the rocky, steep and slightly projecting headlands of Durdle Door to the west and Man of War Head to the east. A line of pronounced rocks takes up the far side of the cove at the distance of the great Durdle Door headland to the east; these partially enclose the cove, and have few submerged components and feature mostly at the east end of the bay. The beach edges under the cliff in a semi circle and the rocks in the sea have given this beach its name. The shape of the rocks in the cove are said to resemble warships of the 16th to 19th century, which were powerful sailing ships armed with cannons.

the above text appears on the back of the card
HC-1382: card size 7" x 5" (178mm x 127mm)