"The Beach Scene": An Edwardian Holiday
Some authors use music, others draw on films and TV series, still others turn to paintings for inspiration for their novels. I soak up ideas and images from all of the above. When it comes to my new novel Dreamland, I reveled in not only the turn-of-the-century photographs of Coney Island and Manhattan that I found but also some intriguing paintings.
In Dreamland I write about two worlds in Coney Island, the raucous one of roller coasters, hotels in the shape of an elephant, circuses, and other attractions and then the other one: the privileged elite gathered at such luxury hotels as Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach, and the Oriental.
Samuel S. Carr (American pastoral and landscape painter) 1837 - 1908
Beach Scene, ca. 1879
oil on canvas
30.5 x 50.8 cm. (12 x 20 in.)
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, United States"Beach Scene" depicts Coney island when it was a fashionable and popular resort in the late 19th century. Several details in Carr's composition hint at the growing commercialism of this site: the photographer taking a family portrait, the man giving donkey rides and the Punch and Judy show. Carr, however, omits the beach signs that were then common, including advertisements for hotels, saloons, acrobatic shows, shooting galleries, and hot dogs.Originally from England and trained at the Royal School of Design in Chester, Carr settled in Brooklyn in 1863 and is primarily known for his genre scenes of Coney Island and Brooklyn parks. As was his practice, a number of figures in "The Beach Scene" are repeated in other paintings.The jewel-like colour accents and complex placement of figure groups make this one of Carr's most successful paintings.* * *Originally from England, he relocated to the U.S. (specifically, New York City, where he later studied mechanical drawing in 1865) around 1862. He is recorded as having lived in Brooklyn from 1879 to 1907, during which he developed an eerie style of painting where shapes would be repeated, flipped, and rotated over and over, while still remaining lifelike. He lived in Brooklyn along with his sister, Annie, and her husband, John Bond. He never married. He was, at one time, the president of the Brooklyn Art Club and a member of a Masonic Lodge. He is a fairly well known artist, with some of his paintings having sold at auction alongside the likes of Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth, to the tune of over US$70,000, and often signed his pieces as "S.S. Carr".
In Dreamland I write about two worlds in Coney Island, the raucous one of roller coasters, hotels in the shape of an elephant, circuses, and other attractions and then the other one: the privileged elite gathered at such luxury hotels as Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach, and the Oriental.
Samuel S. Carr (American pastoral and landscape painter) 1837 - 1908
Beach Scene, ca. 1879
oil on canvas
30.5 x 50.8 cm. (12 x 20 in.)
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, United States"Beach Scene" depicts Coney island when it was a fashionable and popular resort in the late 19th century. Several details in Carr's composition hint at the growing commercialism of this site: the photographer taking a family portrait, the man giving donkey rides and the Punch and Judy show. Carr, however, omits the beach signs that were then common, including advertisements for hotels, saloons, acrobatic shows, shooting galleries, and hot dogs.Originally from England and trained at the Royal School of Design in Chester, Carr settled in Brooklyn in 1863 and is primarily known for his genre scenes of Coney Island and Brooklyn parks. As was his practice, a number of figures in "The Beach Scene" are repeated in other paintings.The jewel-like colour accents and complex placement of figure groups make this one of Carr's most successful paintings.* * *Originally from England, he relocated to the U.S. (specifically, New York City, where he later studied mechanical drawing in 1865) around 1862. He is recorded as having lived in Brooklyn from 1879 to 1907, during which he developed an eerie style of painting where shapes would be repeated, flipped, and rotated over and over, while still remaining lifelike. He lived in Brooklyn along with his sister, Annie, and her husband, John Bond. He never married. He was, at one time, the president of the Brooklyn Art Club and a member of a Masonic Lodge. He is a fairly well known artist, with some of his paintings having sold at auction alongside the likes of Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth, to the tune of over US$70,000, and often signed his pieces as "S.S. Carr".
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