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Rare guitars played by Prince and Noel Gallagher lead Sotheby's Popular Culture AuctionFrom August 29, you can bid on rare guitars, a Steinway piano from Abbey Road, art by John Lennon and a costume from Gladiator II, among other items.
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'I can’t look away. I’m captivated': The painter who takes years over each portrait, with the only guarantee being that it won't look like the subjectFor Country Life's My Favourite Painting slot, the writer Emily Howes chooses a work by a daring and challenging artist: Frank Auerbach.
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The years when Art was part of the Olympics — and the double-gold winning painter who became its greatest championFor decades in the early 20th century, the Olympic Games included events in art, literature and music. Only one person won more than a single gold medal in those years: Jean Jacoby, a painter from Luxembourg who remains his country's most decorated Olympian.
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The 'holy grail' of JRR Tolkien's letters are up for sale, showing his anger at his editors and the 'priggery' of Sherlock HolmesBayliss Books are selling the biggest collection of Tolkien first editions and personal letters to come up for sale in twenty years. Annunciata Elwes takes a look.
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'I painted my own reality': The five key moments that defined Frida Kahlo's life and work70 years on from the death of Frida Kahlo, Carla Passino takes a look at the work and life of the trailblazing artist.
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Paris 1924, when sport came headfirst into an intoxicating mix of art, fashion and desireWhen the Olympics opened in Paris in 1924, the French capital was already gripped by a ferocious blend of art, literature, cinema, fashion and a wild desire to dance. Sport merged into this culture to become the pinnacle of an extraordinary time, as Mary Miers reveals.
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The Uffington White Horse restoration has got it looking at its best, 3,000 years after it was first createdThe Uffington White Horse, the oldest chalk figure in Britain, has just undergone a superb restoration.
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Farewell to the arms: The humbling English defeat to the French that you've never heard ofA 15th-century cannon, an 18th-century flintlock belt-pistol and two swords excavated near Castillon, the site of the battle that ended Britain's rule in south-western France, featured prominently in an Olympia Auctions sale last month.
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Full steam ahead: The art of railThe railway may have started its artistic life as a fire-breathing monster that devoured the countryside, but it soon became an emblem of advancing modernity, a cherished memento of the past and even, in the case of one station, the centre of the universe. Carlo Passino explains.
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The Titian masterpiece found in a plastic bag at a London bus stop has sold for £17.6 millionThe painting that secured Titian’s reputation as 'the greatest painter of the Venetian Renaissance' is going up for sale, 30 years after it was recovered in a carrier bag in the most unlikely of spots.
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'If you get 12 great photographs a year, you're doing well': Charlie Waite on the secrets of landscape photographyThe world-renowned landscape photographer Charlie Waite joins the Country Life Podcast.
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My Favourite Painting: Rob HouchenThe actor Rob Houchen chooses a bold and challenging Egon Schiele work.
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Succession planning for plants? The organisation saving our National CollectionsCharles Quest-Ritson is full of praise for an organisation dedicated to keeping alive Britain's widespread national plant collections.
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Tanks, tulips and taxidermy: The strange lives of Britain's most eccentric collectorsFive collectors of unusual things, from taxidermy to tanks, tulips to teddies, explain their passions to Country Life. Interviews by Agnes Stamp, Tiffany Daneff, Kate Green and Octavia Pollock. Photographs by Millie Pilkington, Mark Williamson and Richard Cannon.
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One of the cleverest pictures ever made, and how it was inspired by one of the cleverest art books ever writtenThe rules of perspective in art were poorly understood until an 18th century draughtsman made them simple. Carla Passino tells the story of Joshua Kirby.
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Six things to know about the Royal Academy's Summer ExhibitionThe 2024 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is here. Country Life's Arts and Antiques Editor Carla Passino shares some trivia and tips for how to get the most out of it.
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Bridesmaid's dress from Queen Elizabeth II's up for auction at Christie'sThe dress, designed by Sir Norman Hartnell, was commissioned by the Queen Mother and was once worn by Kate Moss.
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Country Life 5 June 2024Country Life 5 June 2024 goes on a British wildlife safari, looks ahead to the King's birthday parade, and meets the eccentrics who collect everything from taxidermy to tanks.
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An exclusive chance for Country Life readers to see The George Farrow Collection before it goes under the hammerRoseberys London and Country Life invite readers to an exclusive preview of The George Farrow Collection, which is the subject of a major sale in June.
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Curious Questions: What happened to saucy seaside postcards?Saucy seaside postcards were once a mainstay of British life over the summer, but these days they're rarely seen. Martin Fone asks why, and discovers the history of artists such as Donald McGill who turned wry, naughty humour into a huge industry.
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How a 20-year-old Leonora Carrington told off one of Surrealism's leading lights, and embarked on a career which has just seen her masterpiece go for $22 millionA densely-packed masterpiece by the brilliant Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington has just set a record at auction. We take a look at the life and emergence of the feisty young Lancastrian behind the $22 million sale of 'Les Distractions de Dagobert.
