Lecture: british arts (painting, sculpture)

the Arts Council (of Great Britain)

the Ashmolean Museum

the British Museum

the Burrell Art Collection

Constable, John

the Courtauld Institute

the Elgin Marbles

the Fitzwilliam Museum

Flaxman, John

Gainsborough, Thomas

Gill, Eric

Hepworth, Barbara

Hockney, David

Hogarth, William

Madame Tussaud's

Moore, Henry

the National Gallery

the National Portrait Gallery

Norwich School

Paolozzi, Eduardo

Pre-Raphaelites

the Queen's Gallery

Rackham, Arthur

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

the Royal Academy of Arts

Stevens, Alfred

Tate Gallery

Turner, Joseph

Van Dyck, Sir Anthony

Victoria and Albert Museum

Westmacott, Sir Richard

Painting in Great Britain

Middle Ages (600-1500)

Religious art: wall paintings, painted glass and illuminated (decorated and illustrated) manuscripts. The example of Northumbrian art — The Lindisfarne Gospels, and of Celtic art The Book of Kells, both are of the 8th century. Canterbury and Winchester were two other important centres of illumination. Wall painting was at its best in the 13th century and the best-known centres were at St Albans, Winchester and Westminster. Perhaps the finest surviving work of this period of English painting is The Chichester Roundel. Much work has been lost or destroyed. During the 14th century, a continental Gothic can be seen, as in the Wilton Diptych (National Gallery, London). 16th century

The Reformation ended patronage of art by the Church and cut England off from the Renaissance in painting. The Tudor court was not interested in patronizing any form of painting except portraiture. The best painter working in England during this century was the German Hans Holbein, but he did not found any school. The only English painters of real quality in the 16th century were the painters of miniatures — Nicholas Hilliard and his followers Isaac and Peter Oliver.

17Th century

There was royal patronage of foreign painters, particularly Van Dyck, who greatly influenced later English painters. Later in the century, Lely and Kneller were the fashionable portraitists. There were still few leading native English painters; the best were the portraitists Dobson and Riley.

18Th century

The new architecture of Wren and others led to mural paint­ing in a great many places. The work of Sir James Thornhill is especially well known. The first really original English artist was William Hogarth. Portrait painting and historical or mytholog­ical subjects were made elegant by Reynolds, the founder of the Royal Academy, and by Gainsborough. They were followed by Romney, Lawrence, Hoppner and Raeburn. In landscape paint­ing, Gainsborough drew his inspiration from the Dutch school, while Richard Wilson studied classical composition. The 18th century also saw the development of caricature in the work of Hogarth, Rowlandson and Gillray. Sporting paintings were pop­ular: among the many artists in this field, George Stubbs has come to be respected as a great master. History painting was encouraged by Reynolds, and practised by West.