Art and Antiques
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The Cestello Annunciation (1489–90) by Sandro Botticelli (about 1445–1510). 4ft 9in by 5ft 1in, Uffizi, Florence, Italy / Bridgeman Images Credit: Bridgeman Images -
Anni Albers, 'Black White Yellow' (1926/1965). Cotton and silk, 2032 x 1207 mm. © 2018 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Everfast Fabrics Inc. and Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, 1969 Credit: The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York In Focus: The mesmerising work of Anni Albers, the Bauhaus graduate who turned weaving into fine art
Anni Albers' extraordinary talent for weaving elevated her craft to the very highest levels. Chloe-Jane Good takes a look at one of her most famous pieces, 'Black, White, Yellow', which is part of a new exhibition of her work at the Tate Modern.
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Hambletonian, Rubbing Down, 1799–1800, by George Stubbs (1724–1806), 6ft 10½in by 12ft ½in, National Trust, Mount Stewart, Co Down. ©National Trust Images/John Millar/Bridgeman Credit: National Trust Images/John Millar/Bridgeman My Favourite Painting: Hilary McGrady
Hilary McGrady, director-general of the National Trust, chooses a painting she first encountered in childhood.
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Rembrandt’s Study of the Head and Clasped Hands of a Young Man as Christ in Prayer Credit: Sotheby's In Focus: The Rembrandt portrayal of Christ which contains the fingerprints of the great master himself
A wonderful Rembrandt that went under the hammer recently contains a fascinating imprint of its creator, as Huon Mallalieu reports.
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Credit: Bequeathed by Sir Alexander Maitland with life interest to Colonel Peter Dunphie. Presented by Colonel Dunphie 1997. Desmond Banks/Rory Lindsay Photography My Favourite Painting: Johnnie Boden
Catalogue clothing entrepreneur Johnnie Boden chooses a fascinating still life.
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Thomas Greenaway working on a pietra dura from Lotherton Hall in West Yorkshire he is currently restoring at his Northamptonshire workshop. The Decorative Arts Society has funded the conservation work in advance of an exhibition marking Lotherton’s 50th anniversary as a museum. The table was bought with the aid of a grant from the National Art Collections Fund in 1971. It was designed by William Burges for himself, for his house on Buckingham Street. It was later moved to his grand gothic mansion he designed for himself, the Tower House in Kensington (now owned by Jimmy Page!). It was apparently used by him for special occasions, when he would place many of his most important treasures atop it. The fact that parrots were his favourite bird perhaps adds extra resonance. Credit: Mark Williamson / Country Life The Pietra dura maker: 'Everyone else in Florence was looking at the paintings, but I was looking at the pietra-dura floor'
Pietra dura – the art of creating images by cutting stones and fitting them into a jigsaw of shapes – flowered under the Florentine Medicis, but there’s only one man in Britain creating these precious-stone mosaics today: Thomas Greenaway.
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The Adoration of the Shepherds by Guido Reni (1640). Picture: The National Gallery, London Credit: The National Gallery, London Four of the most beautiful depictions ever created of the Madonna and Child
With Christmas almost upon us, Caroline Campbell of the National Gallery chooses her favourite depictions of the Madonna and Child and is moved by the evocations of tenderness in each painting.
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Two Ways of Life by Oscar Rejlander (Picture: Moderna Museet / Åsa Lund) Credit: Two Ways of Life by Oscar Rejlander (Picture: Moderna Museet / Åsa Lund) Country Life’s best art stories of 2018: Monet, Andrew Graham-Dixon and Victorian Photoshopping
We've taken a look back through our archives from the year to pick out our top 10 articles of 2018 featuring the world's most breathtaking, inspiring and inspiring art from all sorts of genres and periods.
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Marcus Bracey of www.godsownjunkyard.co.uk. Photographed by Richard Cannon © Country Life Picture Library Credit: Marcus Bracey of www.godsownjunkyard.co.uk. Photographed by Richard Cannon © Country Life Picture Library Country Life’s best Living National Treasures of 2018: Stained glass to neon signs, via sculpture, baskets and fishermen
Our hugely popular series tells fascinating tales about extraordinary people keeping traditional skills alive across Britain, illustrated by the wonderful portrait photographs taken by Richard Cannon for Country Life. Our picture editor Lucy Ford makes her selection of her favourites of 2018.
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Credit: PR The utterly inessential shopping list: 16 last-minute Christmas presents
What's that? You haven't done your Christmas shopping yet? Alexandra Fraser will help you put that right.
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Duncan Grant, The Doorway (1929). Courtesy the Arts Council Collection © Estate of Duncan Grant. Credit: Estate of Duncan Grant In Focus: The work by a Bloomsbury Group stalwart which fuses nature, nostalgia and Impressionism
Britist artists Duncan Grant's wonderful versatility allowed him to mix traditional and modern, natural and man-made, as this picture on show at the William Morris Gallery demonstrates. Lilias Wigan went along to take a look.
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Handmade Fairy Maker Dinah Nicholson photographed at her home by Richard Cannon on Thursday 24th October 2018 Credit: Richard Cannon The fairy-maker: ‘There are fairies in royal circles, Australia, New York – everywhere'
Dinah Nicholson's meticulously-recorded magical creations range from doppelgangers of real women to the whimsical Gin & Tonic fairy and have been created at home, on the move or even in the queue at the bank.
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Tony Ray-Jones, Pepys Estate, Deptford, London: children playing on a raised walkway, 1970. Credit: Tony Ray-Jones / RIBA Collections Credit: Tony Ray-Jones / RIBA Collections In Focus: A moment in time capturing the gulf between architects' dreams and residents' realities
Tony Ray-Jones was one of a generation of photographers who chronicled life in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, demonstrating the gulf between the dreams of town planners and the reality for the residents. Chloe-Jane Good takes a look at one of his most famous images.
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Richard George Archibald Lucian Hungerford Crewe-Milnes, Earl of Madeley, 1914, by Philip de László (1869–1937), 26in diameter, West Horsley Place, Surrey. Credit: West Horsley Place, Surrey My favourite painting: Bamber Gascoigne
'The house is full of images of him. However, the story ends sadly – he died at the age of 11, in 1922.'
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Credit: Alamy Curious Questions: Is there any future for Encyclopedia Britannica?
Once the first set of books required in any home library, encyclopedias have long since been superseded by the internet. But rather extraordinarily there is still a market for them, as Octavia Pollock finds out.
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Egon Schiele, The Cellist, 1910. Black crayon and watercolour on packing paper, 44.7 x 31.2 cm. The Albertina Museum, Vienna Credit: The Albertina Museum, Vienna In Focus: A silent cellist, blazing with pleasure, by Klimt's great young protégé Schiele
When he first came on to the Vienna art scene, Egon Schiele hero-worshipped Gustav Klimt. Once they met the two became friends, forming a bond and inspiring each other's work, as Lilias Wigan explains.
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Credit: Private collection via the National Portrait Gallery. Photo by Matthew Hollow. How Country Life helped track down a lost masterpiece by Gainsborough
Five years of fruitless searching had left the National Portrait Gallery almost abandoning hope of finding a lost Gainsborough painting, but the letters page of Country Life came to the rescue.
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Clementine Churchill, at the launching of HMS Indomitable, 1940 – 1955, by Sir Winston Churchill (1874–1965), 30in by 25in, Chartwell House, Kent. ©Churchill Heritage Ltd Credit: ©Churchill Heritage Ltd - no reuse My Favourite Painting: Rupert Soames, grandson of Winston Churchill
Rupert Soames chooses one of Winston Churchill's paintings: a joyous portrait of his grandmother by his grandfather.
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Richard Cannon / Country Life Credit: Richard Cannon / Country Life The stained-glass maker: 'It's powerful, volatile... too overwhelming for domestic settings'
Thomas Denny is one of the few people left in Britain making stained glass for churches. He spoke to Mary Miers.
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Sir Edwin Landseer’s Monarch of the Glen (Picture: National Galleries of Scotland) Credit: Picture: National Galleries of Scotland In Focus: The many lives of Landseer's 'The Monarch of the Glen', the eternal symbol of Scotland
The most famous of Victorian paintings took on a life of its own as a marketing icon, romantic symbol of Scottish identity and inspiration for numerous other artists in a way that could never have been imagined by – and might well have horrified – its creator, the outstanding animal painter Sir Edwin Landseer, says Christopher Baker.
