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'A teaspoon of living soil contains more creatures than there are people in existence': Unearthing the dirt's vital role in our future on World Soil DaySarah Langford argues that it is high time soil become fashionable.
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Who won the rivalry between Turner and Constable? It was us, the publicA forthcoming exhibition at Tate Britain that revives the rivalry between these two 19th century painters sheds new light on their relationship.
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'Love, desire, faith, passion, intimacy, God, spiritual consciousness, curiosity and adventure': The world of Stanley Spencer, a very English visionaryStanley Spencer’s talent for seeing the spiritual in the everyday, his stirring sense for the wonder of Nature and his love for the landscapes of Berkshire and Suffolk shaped his art, as Matthew Dennison reveals.
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A painting owned by Edward Guinness is on display next to a near identical version at Kenwood House — but which one is the real Vermeer?A mini exhibition at Kenwood House allows viewers to ‘to practise their own connoisseurship’.
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'The King of Hell was fat from gorging on souls and he expelled some more from his bowels': The many guises of the Devil Antiquity to present dayTaking as many guises as his names, the Prince of Lies turned at times into a man-devouring ogre, a mutant medley of claws, horns and wings, or the brooding rebel that lit the imagination of Romantic painters.
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Hold the front page: 13 famous Frontispieces, from Deborah Mitford to Sir David and Lady BeckhamTo mark the appearance of Sir David and Lady Beckham on the Country Life Frontispiece, Rosie Paterson selects 13 standout Frontispieces from the Country Life Image Archive.
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Our never-ending interest in magic and the occult, from Elizabethan England to Donald Trump's presidencyAs Haddon Hall’s rooms, complete with historic witches' marks, are transformed into exhibits that explore witchcraft and evil spirits, Lotte Brundle explores our continued fascination with the supernatural.
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A five minute guide to Wayne Thiebaud — the artist who 'reinvented still life as a genre and found fame in the process'The Courtauld Institute is staging the first-ever exhibition of Wayne Thiebaud's work.
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Five émigré artists who greatly enriched Britain's intellectual and creative scenesFrieze Masters kicks off this week and several contributing galleries are using it to shine a spotlight on the artistic contribution of émigrés past and present.
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A handy five minute guide to Frieze — and the things you really don’t want to missThe London art fair returns this week.
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Nine of Britain's most beautiful and awe-inspiring painted ceilings from the Country Life archiveOur round-up of some of the Britain's prettiest painted ceilings is a good reminder to always look up.
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Tim Knox, director of the Royal Collection, charts a century of regal tasteEdward VII swept away the cobwebs of mid-Victorian style, Queen Mary had passion for all things small and the Queen Mother bought rather avant-garde art.
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‘One of the most amazing spaces in London’: Two Hogarth murals, inside an 18th century London hospital, are to go on public display for the first timeSt Bartholomew's Hospital’s north wing is to open as a visitor attraction and events space — while the rest of the hospital will continue to operate as normal.
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The art fairs and exhibitions bringing colour to this autumnCountry Life details the museums and galleries that are putting on a show this season.
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Diversity in style and diversity in location: London's best art is all around usLondon's hotels, pubs and restaurants show the great depth of the capital's artistic tastes.
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‘A stone pounding artist — who exclaims in his sleep, “Think of me standing upon a pinnacle of the Andes — or sketching a Fuegian Glacier!!!”’When fate handed artist Conrad Martens the chance to join HMS Beagle, he captured the Patagonian flatlands, the shores of Tierra del Fuego and the peaks of the Andes with aplomb.
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(Space) oddities: New David Bowie centre opens at V&A East StorehouseThe museum will house and display the largest collection of the artist's costumes, musical instruments, set models, props and more.
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A feat of clay: How ceramics have taken on the fine art world'Not a Pot’, a sculptural pottery exhibition open at York Art Gallery, throws light onto the art form's evolution.
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The Manot bed that made it from a Herefordshire attic to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, courtesy of Country LifeWhen Henry Avray Tipping spotted a 17th-century four poster languishing in a Herefordshire attic in 1911, he set off a chain of events that saw the bed leave its ancestral home and land at The Met in New York
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Athena: In the eyes of Government, will the Arts always be last?After a year of Labour rule, life doesn't seem to be getting any better for Britain's cultural institutions.
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A five minute guide to the Loch Ness monsterThe legend of the Loch Ness monster has endured for more than a thousand years, inspiring countless works of art along the way.
