'Quiet Day in the Studio,' (1885) was painted in John Lavery's first full year as a professional artist after returning from his student years in Paris - his main studio was in central Glasgow close to the Art Club, where his radical approach drew the attention of other young

'Adam and Eve.' (1925) In the 1920s the Spanish painter Rosario de Velasco followed Picasso and Jean Cocteau in their rejection of the extreme avant-garde trend of the preceding decade and so we find a style (return to order) that combined tradition and modernity, associated with

'Three Candied Apples.' (1999) Wayne Thiebaud's still-life paintings, and particularly those of food, were his first mature works and they rapidly built his reputation after his landmark exhibition at Allan Stone Gallery in New York in 1962. He explained his practice a year

'Still life of asparagus.' (1697) Adriaen Coorte's deceptively simple still lifes depicting fruit, nuts, vegetables and shells, set against a plain dark background, are enormously appealing to the modern eye - his work fell into obscurity in the 18thC and 19thC and a reappraisal

Norman Garstin's oil sketch of 1898 depicts his eldest son Crosbie in cricket whites with the family dog, 'Belcher.' Crosbie lived an extraordinary life and, amongst other things, became a lumberjack, a poet, and a best-selling novelist known for the Penhale trilogy of novels

James Gunn's portrait of the artist William Oliphant Hutchison was painted in 1911 when he was 18 years old; in the same year he moved from Edinburgh to Paris to study under the instruction of Jean-Paul Laurens at the Académie Julian.

Walter Bayes was always interested in the intellectual aspects of painting; in the 1890s he began his career as an art critic and writer, contributing words for Saturday Review, Weekend Review and from 1906 he replaced Roger Fry as the art critic of the Athenæum. He supplemented

'The Bridge,' was painted in the early summer of 1888 and when it was first exhibited caused a good deal of consternation amongst the reviewers. One critic for the Daily Telegraph wrote: 'The British Philistine will wonderingly inquire what manner of maidens are those whom Mr

'The Hill above Harlech.' (1917) In many of William Nicholson's landscapes of this period, the sky occupies more than half the picture space and evokes his very best work. As clouds gently roll into the scene, the moonlight is reflecting off the water and the roofs of the houses.

Born and raised in Cornwall, John Opie was discovered by Dr John Wolcot (an amateur artist and critic, and both a pupil and friend of the artist Richard Wilson), who launched him onto the London artistic scene in 1781 as the 'Cornish wonder,' cultivating the impression of a

'Rickett's Farm, Cookham Dene.' (1938) Unlike his busy figure paintings, Stanley Spencer's landscapes are devoid of people and invite the viewer to concentrate on experiencing the pleasure of the place without distraction - this scene is closely observed with every plant, shed,

Interesting news that The Courtauld is to offer an MA in Art and Business in collaboration with King’s Business School. A few years ago, I gave a lecture at the Courtauld about entrepreneurship (having founded two national charities which equipped people to start their

Flowers, still lifes and domestic interiors are the primary subjects of Ethel Sands’s painting; here they are combined with books possibly on a mantelpiece at the Château d’Auppegard, a large 17thC house near Dieppe where Sands and her partner, the painter Nan Hudson spent

A new book on John Singer Sargent will be published later this year - Jean Strouse tells the story of Sargent and his relationship with the Wertheimer family, and the twelve portraits he painted of them between 1898 and 1908. Asher Wertheimer was considered one of the great art

Our painting by John Singer Sargent shows a view up the Valle d'Aosta, with Mont Blanc as the highest peak in the centre distance. By the time this work was painted (around 1908) Sargent had begun to stop painting portrait commissions and would stop altogether the following year.

Jacques-Émile Blanche regularly spent his summers at his family house in Dieppe, playing host to many of his artist friends, including Walter Sickert and popularising Dieppe as an artistic colony. This work shows the pier and was given to Sir John Rothenstein, then director of

'Early Morning.' (1954) In Arthur Taylor's picture, a lone passenger heads to his train for an early morning commute to work. In the 1950s, the biggest passenger demand in the UK was for summer day trips to the seaside rather than the morning commute to the office.

Stanley Spencer painted his self-portrait frequently; this is the first he made in oil in the front bedroom of his family home in Cookham in Berkshire, when he was around 23 years old in 1914. It took a year of his time so we can think he was trying his hardest to portray and get

My take on the statue of the late Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the corgis. Thank you to Lara Wildenberg thetimes.com/uk/royal-famil…

Charles Sheeler was a leading figure of the Precisionist movement known for his crisply-articulated interpretations of modern American life. In 1910, he rented an 18thC house in Doylestown, Pennsylvania and taught himself photography, a medium he also used as a compositional