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The grand master 'paintings' that are actually the most exquisite floral photographs you'll ever see
Harald Altmaier’s photographs of floral tableaux, as colossal in effort as in scale, recall 17th-century Dutch still lifes, but the inspiration behind them is far wider, as Carla Passino finds.
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The £3 million Van Dyck painting going under the hammer with a unique buy-one-get-one-free offer
If you've ever dreamed of owning an Anthony van Dyck, now's your chance to pick up two in one go — plus more fun from today's Dawn Chorus.
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The Legacy: Hans Sloane and the creation of the British Museum
A curious child who grew into a man of voracious intellectual curiosity, his life of collecting gave birth to one of the nation's great institutions.
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Lost and then found: A missing painting by Lord Leighton returns to London
Someone, somewhere, knows something about where it went.
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The First World War, as seen through the unique Country Life Picture Archive
Country Life looks back at the First World War through the lens of the Country Life Archive. View images, read a selection of wartime articles, and also download war artist Muirhead Bone’s first catalogue of drawings, originally published in 1917.
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'Wrecking balls swung from the ceiling, pillars were shown toppling, cornices crumbled... it was sensational': The groundbreaking museum exhibition that helped save the country house
After years of neglect and countless demolitions, 1974 witnessed a revolution in attitudes towards country houses. It proved a turning point in Britain’s treatment of its old buildings generally and the saviour of places such as Covent Garden, as Simon Jenkins explains.
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Who was the real St Crispin, and what did he have to do with the Battle of Agincourt?
You have questions about Shakespeare's most famous speech. We have answers.
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A few of my favourite things: Matthew Goode
The British actor tells Hetty Lintell about three objects he can't live without.
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The story of how 007 creator Ian Fleming came to write Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang
Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, our fine four-fendered friend, turns 60 on October 22nd. Mary Miers relives the adventures of the magical flying car and reveals the little-known story of its creation by Ian Fleming, as the writer turned his attention from the world of 007 to a children's tale.
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An exhibition that brings together the gun that started the First World War, Hemingway's typewriter, Captain Scott's snow goggle and Sgt Pepper's Drum
The gun used to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Hemingway's typewriter and the drum featured on the cover of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band are part of Rick Guest's extraordinary collection of photography, Holy Relics at the StART Fair.
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'As a child I wanted to snuggle up with the dogs and be part of it': Alexia Robinson chooses her favourite painting
Alexia Robinson, founder of Love British Food, chooses an Edwin Landseer classic.
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One year after being cut down, Sycamore Gap tree lives on with new legacy
Saplings from the iconic tree will be planted across the country and a new exhibition in Northumberland will ask the public to make promises to nature.
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My Favourite Painting: Geraldine Collinge
Geraldine Collinge, the director of Compton Verney art gallery in Warwickshire, selects Pierre-Jacques Volaire's An Eruption of Vesuvius by Moonlight.
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My Favourite Painting: Rachel Podger
Rachel Podger, one of the world's leading violinists who specialises in Baroque music, chooses one of Vincent van Gogh's 'Sunflowers'.
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The Legacy: Sir Henry Tate and art for all
After making his fortune in the sugar business, Sir Henry felt he deserved to give something back to the nation. And so, the Tate gallery was born.
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The timeless appeal of Vaughan and the secrets of good lighting to be unpacked by four of Britain's top designers
For more than four decades, Vaughan has combined inspiration from past and present to create beautifully crafted lighting, furniture and textiles that will stand the test of time.
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The rest is photographs
An afternoon spent going through dusty old albums puts our columnist Jonathan Self in contemplative mood.
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The Pre-Raphaelite painter who swapped 'willowy, nubile women' for stained glass — and created some of the best examples in Britain
The painter Edward Burne-Jones turned from paint to glass for much of his career. James Hughes, director of the Victorian Society, chooses a glass masterpiece by Burne-Jones as his favourite 'painting'.
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George Stubbs (1724–1806): Hero of the turf
George Stubbs, born 300 years ago, found Nature superior to art and approached his pictures with the eye of an anatomy scholar, yet no contemporary could rival him in capturing the elegance and character of racehorses, dogs and even zebras, as Jack Watkins discovers.
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The Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece that never was, thanks to an assassination, a war, an abduction and an invasion
The great master Leonardo da Vinci was on course to create an equine statue that could have rivalled his greatest pieces — until fate intervened. Carla Passino tells the tale of the da Vinci sculpture that never was.
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Leading landscape photographers share their secrets in latest Light & Land exhibition
Charlie Waite, Bill Ward, Astrid McGechan, Ed Rumble and Charlotte Bellamy are some of the many famous names who will be exhibiting at the Mall Galleries from September 3.
