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‘One remembers not to give the Queen a thump of joyful friendliness’: Remembering Norman Parkinson — revolutionary fashion photographer and Cecil Beaton’s only homegrown rival
Cecil Beaton might be the toast of London right now, with a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, but contemporary Norman Parkinson was always hot on his heels.
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Tim Knox, director of the Royal Collection, charts a century of regal taste
Edward 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 time
St 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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What to expect when you start collecting
Starting a new collection can be daunting. Art advisor Patrick Monahan shares his top tips on what and how to buy and what to avoid.
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'Each of my active ancestors had the good sense and taste to purchase or commission the outstanding work of their time': Meet the collecting dynasties
Whether it is adding contemporary paintings to a gallery of Old Masters or branching out into territories as diverse as Modernist chairs, Iranian tiles or Churchill memorabilia, the passion for collecting seems to run in some families.
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Diversity in style and diversity in location: London's best art is all around us
London's hotels, pubs and restaurants show the great depth of the capital's artistic tastes.
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Wedgwood's craftspeople produce objects that dignify our lives daily in countless ways — here's hoping that better times lie ahead
Country Life's cultural commentator Athena analyses the concerning developments at Wedgwood.
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'There were no fireworks. The art world remained unshaken. Then, this April, a letter arrived... to see it hanging in Tate will be very special': Art dealer John Martin on the piece he'd never part with
A chance encounter with a huge, shimmering panel led art dealer John Martin to discover Nigerian sculptor Asiru Olatunde, a man who also owed his artistic career to an accidental find, as Carla Passino learns.
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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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Three kilos of gold, 6,462 diamonds and the size of a plate: Is this the world’s most valuable coin?
With an estimate of £2-3 million, The coin was created for Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, goes up for auction this month and can be bought using cryptocurrency.
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Arts & Antiques: Five ways in which we are living in a material world
Carla Passino looks at a new art, fashion and culture festival at Kew Gardens, and the life and work of the artist Rose Hilton.
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Helene Kröller-Müller: The woman who made van Gogh
After a life-threatening illness spurred Helene Kröller-Müller to make plans for a museum, she bought modern art voraciously, forming an extraordinary collection that shaped the early-20th-century perception of Vincent van Gogh
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(Space) oddities: New David Bowie centre opens at V&A East Storehouse
The museum will house and display the largest collection of the artist's costumes, musical instruments, set models, props and more.
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The captivating art of the Japanese woodblock
Hokusai’s ferocious wave and Hiroshige’s relentless downpour stole the show at a sale of ukiyo-e prints earlier in the summer
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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 Life
When 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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'You have to work hand in hand with the author — like a dancer has to work with the music': Illustrating Homer's epic poems
Artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins, faced with the colossal challenge of illustrating Homer's 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey', eschewed grandstand views of monumental battles, looking instead for what he calls the little cracks in the paving stones.
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Art saved for the nation? Not enough, it would seem
The recent publication of a report on export control of art from the UK makes depressing reading.
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Good things come in small packages: The art of an excellent miniature
With so many medals to fit on the tiniest miniature she had ever worked on, limner Elizabeth Meek literally had to hold her breath when painting the portrait of Charles III, but the result is a resounding success.
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The perks of being wallpaper: A collection of never-before-seen William Morris designs are to go on sale
The first new Morris & Co. designs in a century were developed using archive materials discovered inside a Californian library.
