I notice that currently there are a number of interesting books on the English seaside and it’s history.
In the first of these two articles looking at what our ancestors wore on the beach, I had reached 1890 with just a glimpse of lower leg and arm from the wild young things as they paraded themselves in the sun. Otherwise, adults only bared the absolute minimum, most even wearing hats. The only members of the family who could, in the right place, get away with anything less were children, and even they were often well covered up.
William Merritt Chase, A Sunny Day at Shinnecock Bay (1892), oil on canvas, 46.99 x 60.33 cm, Private collection. WikiArt.
The citizens of New York often went to the beaches of Long Island, NY, although here William Merritt Chase has travelled far from the crowds, out among the Hamptons, where the more affluent were building their holiday mansions. Chase was a key figure in American art in the late nineteenth century:…
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