Like many of the best things in life, seaside outings were invented by the Victorians. The development of the railways in the mid-19th century opened up coastal resorts to the masses and destinations such as Bray and Tramore in Ireland and Blackpool, Ramsgate and Southport in England attracted huge numbers of day-trippers and longer-stay holidaymakers.
Victorian artists responded enthusiastically to the newly found interest in all matters seaside. The most famous painting of the genre, Life at the Seaside: Ramsgate by William Powell Frith, was exhibited at London's Royal Academy in 1854 and caused a sensation.
It was bought for £1,000 by Queen Victoria who had visited Ramsgate (in Kent) seven years earlier and recorded in her journal that she "drove down to the beach with my maid & went into the bathing machines, where I undressed & bathed in the sea (for the 1st time in my life)".
Her subjects were equally enthralled by the experience.
Sea-bathing was regarded as beneficial to well-being and recommended as a cure for various ailments. One of the most beautiful – and delightful – Victorian paintings of the seaside, The Convalescent by William Gale, was briefly exhibited in Dublin by Sotheby's two years ago before being sold at auction in London for £37,500 (approximately €52,000).
The painting shows a family at the beach in an unidentified resort. The young mother is recovering from an illness and her husband is holding her hand and looking concerned. She is clearly on the mend and he doesn’t look grief-stricken or panicked. One of the couple’s daughters digs happily in the sand; the other, tenderly, presents her mother with seaweed.
The artist is acknowledging the medicinal reputation of Fucus vesiculosus – commonly known as bladderwrack – a rich source of iodine – found on the shoreline throughout Ireland and Britain.
In both powdered or pill form , extract of bladderwrack was a popular Victorian treatment for all manner of illnesses and was also regarded as a "cure" for obesity. One popular product among late 19th-century weight-watchers was a product called "Anti-Fat" which consisted primarily of extract of the seaweed. Whatever ails the woman in The Convalescent she certainly doesn't suffer from obesity.
But, in addition to weight-loss, the Victorians also used bladderwrack to treat goitre – a swelling of the thyroid gland related to iodine deficiency. The painting, incidentally, was originally titled The Sick Wife when it was first exhibited in London's Royal Academy in 1862.
