A vast canvas with an apocalyptic vision of death and destruction? It must be one of John Martin’s, then. Another distinctive British narrative painter.
Turner
One of the greatest British narrative painters of the 19th century, a small selection of his best from Eris picking a golden apple in 1806 to the slaveship of 1840.
Reflections seen in landscapes from Dürer’s pioneering watercolour, through Poussin and Turner to Monet, Sisley and Neo-Impressionists.
Snakes and serpents in myth, legend and religion are thoroughly sinister and bad, with one curious exception. A journey across centuries of images.
A river cruise starting with JMW Turner at Maidenhead in the Berkshire countryside, and ending with Whistler at Battersea Bridge.
From Nabi women climbing stepladders to gathering plums in baskets, with a visit to the garden of the Hesperides, and ending in the garden of Eden.
Moving around changed greatly in the 18th and 19th centuries, with the advent of canals, steam ships and trains, hot air balloons, and the bicycle.
Starting from Egyptian blue in ancient times, pigments preferred by painters for sky blue have changed repeatedly. Here’s a brief history.
Travel by sea was hazardous. Here are paintings of shipwrecks from Tintoretto to the early 19th century, as an introduction to The Tempest.
Declared sublime, and named after the throat, they’re painted from the mid-18th century. Works by Wolf, Turner, Ward, German Romantics and more.
The Eclectic Light Company 