kent | A set of themed essays about Kent, a county in South East England, which include interactive maps and images. Kent has a rich history and provided inspiration for a number of writers and artists.

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Architects, designers, painters, illustrators, cartoonists and muralists have been inspired by Kent’s rich landscape.

William Burges

William ‘Billy’ Burges, Neo-gothic architect and designer, created a Gothic fantasy in the Town Hall at Dover.

Alfred Cohen

It was Kent that engaged my feelings more fiercely than any other place I can remember’, said the American artist Alfred Cohen.

Richard Dadd

Painter of fairies, the supernatural, and Oriental scenes, Dadd was born in Chatham and would become one of the most famous inmates of Bethlem Hospital for the insane.

William Dyce

William Dyce (1806-1864) took his young family on holiday to Ramsgate in 1858, and painted Pegwell Bay - a Recollection of October 5th 1858.

Elizabeth Gould

Gould, who was born in Ramsgate, contributed invaluably to the world of ornithological illustration.

Donald Maxwell

Maxwell used his writing and illustration to infuse the industrial and everyday with a sense of the exotic or the magical.

Paul Nash

Paul Nash was a war artist and photographer who became an important influence in British inter-war surrealism and Modern Art.

Augustus Welby Pugin

Augustus Welby Pugin, the charismatic leader and promoter of the Gothic Revival and one of the most important architects of the nineteenth century built a church and house in Ramsgate.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Painter, and illustrator of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, Rossetti spent his last days in Birchington.

Edward Linley Sambourne

Satirical cartoonist for Punch magazine.

Marian Peck

Artist specialising in maps, calligraphy and miniatures.

Mary Tourtel

Writer and illustrator of the cartoon strip Rupert Bear for the Daily Express, Mary had a particular fondness and ability for capturing the likenesses of animals.

Traveller’s Joy by Gloria Treseder

Mural inspired by the plants and literature of Canterbury.

Louis Wain

Famed for his anthropomorphic paintings of cats in amusing situations.