"This book demonstrates how engagement with modernism in the landscapes and rural scenes of artists like George Clausen, Philip Wilson Steer, Augustus John, Laura Knight, J.D. Fergusson and Spencer Gore corresponds to the 'non-aesthetic interests' of the period and sets up a series of imaginary geographies of sites drawn from the home counties and Cornwall to the shores of the Mediterranean. It explores their relation to the broader culture of ruralism and re-considers simple conflations between national identity, 'Englishness' and the native landscape.

The modernist scrutiny of the medium, the search for essentials, for harmony, stability and a potential order ultimately produced reassuring imagery for an age preoccupied with cultural degeneracy and bodily health - but the processes of purification were pursued at a significant cost."--Jacket.