The Beach at Land's End, Cornwall

The Beach at Land's End, Cornwall, painted in 1879 on panel and in the National Trust, depicts the extreme south-western tip of mainland Britain — one of the most symbolically loaded geographical points in England. Land's End had been a tourist and literary destination since the eighteenth century, attracting visitors who wanted to stand at the furthest point of England before the open Atlantic. Brett's treatment is characteristically geological rather than picturesque or sublime — he is interested in the granite formations, the specific quality of light at this exposed promontory, and the colour of the Atlantic water rather than the Romantic associations of the site. The use of panel rather than canvas may reflect its relatively small scale, executed rapidly during a yacht excursion rather than in a studio.

Panel support suggests a smaller, more spontaneous work — possibly a plein-air sketch later completed in the studio. The granite geology of Land's End is among the hardest and most massive in Britain, and Brett's handling of it differs from the more varied geological character of the Pembrokeshire or Yorkshire subjects. The Atlantic at Land's End has a particular clarity and deep blue quality.