ArtPage on English Art

English art - [Expect an in-depth article to appear here soon.]

England is one of the three kingdoms of the United Kingdom.

Making generalizations about the visual culture of any group of people is a crude endeavor, especially with a culture as diverse as England's. With this thought in mind, know that this survey, as any must be, is tremendously limited in its breadth and depth.

Examples:

England, Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge, 2750-1500 BCE, a Neolithic monumental stone temple / observatory. See dolmen, megalith, menhir, monolith, and Stone Age.

England, Chasuble: Opus Anglicanum, 1330-50, silk and metal thread on velvet, pearls, width 30 inches (76.2 cm), length 5 1/2 inches (14 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See costume.

England, Royal Workshops, Greenwich, Armor for Field and Tournament, 1527, steel, etched and gilded overall, height 73 inches (185.5 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

England, Royal Workshops, Greenwich, Armor of George Clifford, Third Earl of Cumberland, c. 1580-85, steel, etched, blued, and gilded, height 69 1/2 inches (176.5 cm), weight 60 lb. (27.2 kg), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

England, Needlework Framed Picture, third quarter of the 17th century, silk on canvas, 13 x 20 1/2 inches (33 x 52.1 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See textile.

William Hogarth (English, 1697-1764), Miss Mary Edwards (1705-43), 1742, oil on canvas, 49 3/4 x 39 7/8 inches (126.4 x 101.3 cm), Frick Collection, NY.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (English, 1723-1792), General John Burgoyne, c. 1766, oil on canvas, 50 x 39 7/8 inches (127 x 101.3 cm), Frick Collection, NY.

Robert Jones (London, England), Hunting and Fishing Scenes, length, 1769, linen and cotton, width 39 x 81 1/8 inches (99.1 x 206.1 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Thomas Gainsborough (English, 1727-1788), The Hon. Frances Duncombe, c. 1777, oil on canvas, 92 1/4 x 61 1/8 inches (234.3 x 155.2 cm), Frick Collection, NY.

Thomas Gainsborough, The Mall in St. James's Park, c. 1783, oil on canvas, 47 1/2 x 57 7/8 inches (120.6 x 147 cm), Frick Collection, NY.

John Deare (English, 1759-98, active in Italy), Judgment of Jupiter, 1786-87, marble relief, 58 1/4 x 117 1/4 inches (148 x 297.8 cm), Los Angeles County Museum of Art. See Neoclassicism.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (English, 1775-1851), Cologne: The Arrival of a Packet-Boat: Evening, 1826, oil and possibly watercolor on canvas, 66 3/8 x 88 1/4 inches (168.6 x 224.1 cm), Frick Collection, NY.

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Harbor of Dieppe, 1826?, oil on canvas, 68 3/8 x 88 3/4 inches (173.7 x 225.4 cm), Frick Collection, NY.

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Grand Canal, Venice, c. 1835, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 1/8 inches (91.4 x 122.2 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. (On the Met's page, you can enlarge any detail.)

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Lake of Zug, 1843, watercolor with gouache and colored chalks, over traces of graphite; extensive scraping with penknife, 11 3/4 x 18 3/8 inches (29.8 x 46.6 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

England, Quilt, 19th century (1820s?), cotton, 8 feet 8 3/4 x 89 3/4 inches (266.1 x 228 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

John Constable (English, 1776-1837), Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds, c. 1825, oil on canvas, 34 5/8 x 44 inches (87.9 x 111.8 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. (On the Met's page, you can enlarge any detail.) See Romanticism.

William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800-1877), Articles of Glass, 1843, salted paper print from calotype negative, Cleveland Museum of Art.

David Octavius Hill (British, 1802-1870) and Robert Adamson (British, 1821-1848), Newhaven Fishwives, c. 1845, depicted: Newhaven, Scotland, salted paper print from paper negative, 29.5 x 21.7 cm (11 5/8 x 8 9/16 inches), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Decimus Burton and Richard Turner (English), architects, Palm House at Kew Gardens, London, England, 1844-48, a greenhouse of glass and iron for the Royal Botanic Gardens, length 363 feet, width 100 feet, height 66 feet.

Julia Margaret Cameron (English, born India, 1815-1879), Zoe, Maid of Athens, 1866?, albumen silver print from glass negative, 30.1 x 24.5 cm (11 7/8 x 9 5/8 inches), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Julia Margaret Cameron, Sir John Herschel, 1867, print by A.L. Coburn, c. 1915, from copy negative of original print platinum print, tinted stock, mechanically varnished, 25.7 x 19.4 cm, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.

Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869), A Quiet Day In The Mortar Battery, 1855 / print 1856, salted paper print, 23.8 x 34.5 cm, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.

William Holman Hunt (English, 1827-1910), Our English Coasts, 1852 ('Strayed Sheep'), 1852, oil on canvas, 43.2 x 58.4 cm, Tate Gallery, London. See Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

William Holman Hunt, The Awakening Conscience, 1853, oil on canvas, 76.2 x 55.9 cm, Tate Gallery, London.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (English, 1828-1882), Lady Lilith, 1867, watercolor, bodycolor and gum, 20 3/16 x 17 5/16 inches, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Sir John Everett Millais Bt.,P.R.A. (English, 1829-1896), Christ in the House of His Parents or The Carpenter's Shop, 1849-50, oil on canvas, 86.4 x 139.7 cm, Tate Gallery, London. See Millais' Study for `Christ in the House of His Parents', c. 1849, pencil on paper, 19.0 x 33.7 cm, Tate Gallery, London. See Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Sir John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1851-2, oil on canvas, 76.2 x 111.8 cm, Tate Gallery, London.

Frederick Lord Leighton (Sir Frederick Leighton) (English, 1830-1896), Lieder ohne Worte, 1861, oil on canvas, 101.6 x 62.9 cm, Tate Gallery, London.

Frederick Lord Leighton, The Bath of Psyche, 1890, oil on canvas, 189.2 x 62.2 cm, Tate Gallery, London.

Eadweard Muybridge (American, born England, 1830-1904), Animal Locomotion Plate 59: Running Man, c. 1887, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, photographs taken by a series of cameras. Muybridge printed these as sheets of sequenced exposures, although they are displayed here as if projected like a movie — a technological development Muybridge is considered to have pioneered. See Eadweard Muybridge photos reproduced at the "Masters of Photography" site.

Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll (English mathematician and writer [author of Alice In Wonderland ], as well as photographer, 1832-1898), detail of Edith, Lorina and Alice (the Liddell sisters), 1859, the little girl who was the model for the fantasy Alice. A site posting many of his photos.

William Morris and Co. (England, Surrey, Merton Abbey), The Adoration of the Magi Tapestry, late 19th century, wool, handwoven, 255 x 379 cm, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. In the 1880s William Morris attempted to revive tapestry weaving, along with fine hand-printing of books, furniture making, and other crafts. Morris founded the Arts and Crafts Movement.

William Morris (English, 1834-1896), Pink and Rose Wallpaper Design, c. 1890, hand-block-printed wallpaper, 22 x 28 inches (55.9 x 71.1 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Designed by William Morris, made / manufactured by Morris and Company, Merton Abbey, England, Length of Printed Cotton, 19th-20th century, cotton, 8 feet 7 1/2 x 38 1/4 inches (262.9 x 97.2 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See textile.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (English, 1836-1912). See Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Walter Richard Sickert (English, 1860-1942), Ennui, c. 1914, oil on canvas, 152.4 x 112.4 cm, Tate Gallery, London. See ennui and expression.

Ben Nicholson (English, 1894-1982), Sirius March, 1964, oil on canvas, 109.5 x 221 cm, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran.

Henry Moore (English, 1898-1986), sculpture, bronze, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. See negative space.

Dame Barbara Hepworth (English, 1903-1975), Two Figures (Menhirs), 1964, slate, 82.5 x 63.8 x 32.0 cm, Tate Gallery, London. See feminism and feminist art, menhir, and negative space.

Anthony Caro (English, 1924-), Potpourri, 1976-77, welded steel, rusted and varnished, 57 x 102 x 134 inches, Grounds For Sculpture, NJ.

Anthony Caro, Odalisque, 1984, steel, 77 x 96 x 60 1/2 inches (195.6 x 243.8 x 153.7 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See odalisque.

Rachel Whiteread (English, 1963-) Untitled (Yellow Bath), 1996, rubber and polystyrene, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA. See feminism and feminist art.

Rachel Whiteread, Untitled (Paperbacks), 1997, plaster and steel, room installation, dimensions variable, Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Also see architecture, arms & armor, art for art's sake, Arts and Crafts Movement, Australian art, Canadian art, chinoiserie, costume, Dada, Danish art, design, drawing, Dutch art, engraving, etching, expressionism, Expressionism, flags of Europe, Fluxus, folk art, French art, furniture, genre, German art, Gothic, history painting, illumination, jewelry, landscape, lithography, Madonna, marble, Middle Ages, monument, museum, mythology, narrative art, nude, orientalism, pastel, philately, photography, porcelain, portrait, Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, poster, Romanticism, sculpture, seascape, self-portrait, stained glass, still life, Surrealism, tapestry, textile, watercolor, and woodcut, among many other articles.