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One of the Marriage a la Mode series by William Hogarth

A distinctively English image of the Resurrection of Jesus, with Christ stepping on a soldier, in a 14th century Nottingham alabaster relief

George K. H. Coussmaker (1782) by Joshua Reynolds, continuing the tradition of Van Dyck

English art is the body of visual arts made in England. Following historical surveys such as Creative Art In England by William Johnstone (1936 and 1950), Nikolaus Pevsner attempted a definition in his 1956 book The Englishness of English Art, as did Sir Roy Strong in his 2000 book The Spirit of Britain: A narrative history of the arts, and Peter Ackroyd in his 2002 book The Origins of the English Imagination.

Although medieval English painting, mostly religious, had a strong national tradition and was at times influential on the rest of Europe, it was in decline from the 15th century. The Protestant Reformation, which was especially destructive of art in England, not only brought the tradition to an abrupt stop but resulted in the destruction of almost all wall-paintings. Only illuminated manuscripts now survive in good numbers.

Earliest art[link]

The oldest art in England can be dated to the Neolithic period, including the large ritual landscapes such as Stonehenge from c. 2600 BC. From around 2150 BC, the Beaker people learned how to make bronze, and use both tin and gold. They became skilled in metal refining and works of art placed in graves or sacrificial pits have survived. In the Iron Age, a new art style arrived as Celtic culture spread across the British isles. Though metalwork, especially gold ornaments, was still important, stone and most likely wood was also used. This style continued into the Roman period, beginning in the 1st century BC, and would find a renaissance in the Medieval period. The arrival of the Romans brought the Classical style of which many monuments have survived, especially funerary monuments, statues and busts. They also brought glasswork and mosaics. In the 4th century, a new element was introduced as the first Christian art was made in Britain. Several mosaics with Christian symbols and pictures have been preserved. The style of Romano-British art follows that of the continent, there are some local specialities, influenced by Celtic art; the Staffordshire Moorlands Pan is one example.

Medieval[link]

After Roman rule, the Anglo-Saxons brought Germanic traditions, seen in the metalwork of Sutton Hoo. Anglo-Saxon sculpture was outstanding for its time, at least in the small works in ivory or bone that are almost all that have survived.^[1] Especially in Northumbria, the Insular art style shared across the British Isles produced much of the finest work being produced in Europe until the Viking raids and invasions largely suppressed the movement; the Book of Lindisfarne is one example certainly produced in Northumbria. The carved stone high crosses, such as the Ruthwell Cross, were a distinctive Insular form, probably related to the Pictish stones of Scotland. Anglo-Saxon art developed a very sophisticated variety of contemporary Continental styles, seen especially in metalwork and illuminated manuscripts such as the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold. Effectively none of the large scale paintings and sculptures that we know existed have survived. By the first half of the 11th century, English art was being lavishly patronized by the wealthy Anglo-Saxon elite, who valued above all works in precious metals, but the Norman Conquest in 1066 brought a sudden halt to this art boom, and instead works were melted down or removed to Normandy. After a pause of some decades, manuscript painting in England soon became again the equal of any in Europe, in Romanesque works like the Winchester Bible and the St Albans Psalter, and then early Gothic ones like the Tickhill Psalter. English illumination fell away in the final phase of the Gothic period as elite patrons began instead to commission works from Paris or Flanders. Some of the extremely rare survivals of English medieval panel paintings, like the Westminster Retable and Wilton Diptych (the artist's nationality here is uncertain) are of the highest quality. Another art form introduced through the church was stained glass, which was also adopted for secular uses. There was a considerable industry producing Nottingham alabaster reliefs for mid-market altarpieces and small statues, which were exported across Northern Europe.

Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries[link]

The artists of the Tudor court in the Renaissance and their successors until the early 18th century were mostly imported talents, often from Flanders. These included Hans Holbein the Younger, Van Dyck, Rubens, Orazio Gentileschi and his daughter Artemesia, Sir Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey Kneller. An exception must be made for the portrait miniature, where a strong English tradition began with the Elizabethan Nicholas Hilliard, who had learnt from Continental artists, and continued with Isaac Oliver and many other artists. By the following century a number of significant English painters of full-size portraits began to emerge, and towards the end of the century the other great English specialism, of landscape painting, also began to be practiced by natives. Both were heavily influenced by Anthony Van Dyck in particular, although he does not seem to have trained any English painters himself, he was a powerful influence in promoting the baroque style. One of the most important native painters of this period was William Dobson. During the 17th century the English nobility also became important collectors of European art, led by King Charles I and Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel in the first half of the century. By the end of the century the Grand Tour had become established for wealthy young Englishmen.

18th and 19th centuries[link]

In the 18th century, English painting finally developed a distinct style and tradition again, still concentrating on portraits and landscapes, but also attempting, without much success, to find an approach to history painting, regarded as the highest of the hierarchy of genres. Sir James Thornhill's paintings were executed in the Baroque style of the European Continent and William Hogarth reflected the new English middle-class temperament — English in habits, disposition, and temperament, as well as by birth. His satirical works, full of black humour, point out to contemporary society the deformities, weaknesses and vices of London life.

Portraits were, as elsewhere in Europe, much the most easiest and most profitable way for an artist to make a living, and the English tradition continued to draw of the relaxed elegance of the portrait style developed in England by Van Dyck, although there was little actual transmission from his work via his workshop. Leading portraitists were Thomas Gainsborough; Sir Joshua Reynolds, founder of the Royal Academy of Arts; George Romney; and Sir Thomas Lawrence. Joseph Wright of Derby was well known for his candlelight pictures, George Stubbs for his animal paintings. By the end of the century, the English swagger portrait was much admired abroad, and had largely ceased to look for inspiration abroad.

The early 19th century also saw the emergence of the Norwich school of painters. Influenced by Dutch landscape painting and the landscape of Norfolk, the Norwich School were the first provincial art-movement outside of London. Short-lived due to sparse patronage and internal faction prominent members include 'founding father' John Crome, John Sell Cotman notable for his water-colours in particular and the promising but short-lived maritime painter Joseph Stannard.

Paul Sandby was called the father of English watercolour painting. Other notable 18th and 19th-century landscape painters include Richard Wilson (born in Wales); George Morland; John Robert Cozens; Thomas Girtin; John Constable; J. M. W. Turner; and John Linnell.

On English coasts (1852) by William Holman Hunt

The Pre-Raphaelite movement, established in the 1840s, dominated English art in the second half of the 19th century. Its members — William Holman Hunt; Dante Gabriel Rossetti; John Everett Millais and others — concentrated on religious, literary, and genre works executed in a colorful and minutely detailed almost photographic style.

Themes[link]

Its earliest known developed form, one that continues to the present-day, is arguably the decorative surface pattern work exemplified by the Lindisfarne Gospels and the exterior carving of Anglo-Saxon churches and monuments. Ackroyd argues that the concern for a light and delicate outline, for surface pattern for its own sake, and for patterns and borders that threaten to overwhelm the portrayal of figures, have all been long-standing characteristics of a continuous English art. Other elements Ackroyd sees as inherited from the early Celtic church are a concern to portray the essence of animals, a tendency to understatement, and a concern for repeating structures that extends from Celtic knotwork to church organ music to Staffordshire ceramic-ware to stained glass windows and to the wallpapers of William Morris. Strong agrees with Ackroyd on all these points.

English anti-intellectualism has led them to easily mingle fiction with observed facts, in order to invent 'traditions', but this has often given fresh life to traditions that would otherwise have gone stale. Pevsner noted, in the context of a consummate arts professionalism, a detachment and self-effacement among artists that often led them to belittle the act of creation, and to be willing to give away their ideas to be re-used by other artists.

Royal collection[link]

Relatively few pieces survive from before the 16th century, partly because of fires such as that which destroyed Whitehall Palace in 1698. Charles I of England built up a great royal collection of art. This was mostly sold by the English Commonwealth, but Charles II was able to recover much of it, by judicious pressure on English purchasers, although many of the finest works had been sold abroad and were lost.^[2] There were later major additions by George III, Queen Victoria and others, so that today the Royal Collection is one of the largest in the world, despite many gifts to museums. Much of it is on display in Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, Hampton Court Palace and other sites. The Queen's Gallery attached to Buckingham Palace and the Queen's Gallery, Edinburgh host temporary exhibitions from the collection.

Salisbury cathedral by John Constable

Crossing the Brook by J. M. W. Turner

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Landscapes[link]

In the popular imagination English landscape painting from the 18th century onwards typifies English art, inspired largely from the love of the pastoral and mirroring as it does the development of larger country houses set in a pastoral rural landscape. It was developed initially by Dutch and Flemish artists, from the late 17th century onwards.

As the population of England grew during the industrial revolution, a concern for privacy and smaller gardens becomes more notable in English art. There was also a new found appreciation of the open landscapes of romantic wilderness, and a concern for the ancient folk arts. William Morris is particularly associated with this latter trend, as were the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Another important influence, from about 1890 until 1926, was the growing knowledge about the visual art of Japan.

Being a coastal and sea-faring island nation, English art has often portrayed the coast and the sea. Being a nation of four distinct seasons, and changeable weather, weather effects have often been portrayed in English art. Weather and light effects on the English landscape have been a pre-eminent aspect of modern British landscape photography.

See also[link]

• Arts Council England
• British art
• English underground
• Insular art
• List of British painters
• Museums in England
• Neo-romanticism
• The Analysis of Beauty by William Hogarth (1753)
• Art of the United Kingdom

Museums exhibiting English art[link]

• British Museum
• National Gallery
• National Portrait Gallery
• Tate Britain
• Victoria and Albert Museum
• Walker Art Gallery
• Yale Center for British Art

Noted artists of the English school[link]

• William Blake
• John Constable
• Thomas Gainsborough
• William Hogarth
• L. S. Lowry
• Paul Nash
• Samuel Palmer
• Stanley Spencer
• J. M. W. Turner

Further reading[link]

• Ellis Waterhouse, "Painting in Britain, 1530-1790", 4th Edn, 1978, Penguin Books (now Yale History of Art series)
• Nikolaus Pevsner, The Englishness of English Art (London, 1956)
• William Gaunt, The Great Century of British Painting: Hogarth to Turner (London, 1971)
• Joseph Burke, English Art, 1714–1800 (Oxford, 1976)
• David Bindman (ed.), The Thames and Hudson Encyclopaedia of British Art (London, 1985)
• William Vaughan, British Painting: The Golden Age from Hogarth to Turner (London, 1999)

Notes[link]

1. ^ BBC History
2. ^ Brotton, Jerry. The Sale of the Late King's Goods: Charles I and His Art Collection

External links[link]

• Article by Philip Hagreen
• JSTOR copy of article

Ron English (born 1966) is an American contemporary artist who explores popular brand imagery and advertising. His signature style employs a mash-up of high and low cultural touchstones, including comic superhero mythology and totems of art history, to create a visual language of evolution. He is also widely considered a seminal figure in the advancement of street art away from traditional wild-style lettering and into clever statement and masterful trompe l’oeil based art. He has created illegal murals and billboards that blend stunning visuals with biting political, consumerist and surrealist statements, hijacking public space worldwide for the sake of art since the 1980s.

Work[link]

Culture jamming is one aspect of his work, involving 'liberating' commercial billboards with his own messages. Frequent targets of his work include Joe Camel, McDonald's, and Mickey Mouse. Ron English can be considered the "celebrated prankster father of dollar-pop", who wrangles carefully created corporate icons so that they are turned upside down, and are used against the very corporation they are meant to represent. Ron English is considered one of the fathers of modern street art^{[by whom?]} and has initiated and participated in illegal public art campaigns since the early eighties. Some of his extralegal murals include one on the Berlin Wall's Checkpoint Charlie in 1989 and one on the Palestinian separation wall in the West Bank in 2007, with fellow street artists Banksy and Swoon (artist).^{[citation needed]}

English has also painted several album covers including The Dandy Warhols album cover "Welcome to the Monkey House". He painted the cover of the new Slash (album). More recently he painted the cover for American superstar Chris Brown's Album (F.A.M.E). Some of his paintings are also used in Morgan Spurlock's documentaries Super Size Me and POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. Following the credits, he receives special thanks and is credited as "The Greatest Living Artist."

English is as well known for his photorealist technique and inventive use of color and comic book collage as he is for his unique cast of characters, including sexualized animals, skeletal figures, Marilyn Monroe with Mickey Mouse breasts, the corpulent fast food spokesman MC Supersized, and one of his most significant creations, Abraham Obama, a fusion of America’s 16th and 44th Presidents. During the 2008 Presidential Election, he combined the features of Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln for a popularly-distributed image entitled "Abraham Obama."^[1][2]

Songs In English is the world's first blog-as-you-go recording project. It is based on the lyrics of World Renowned Ron English and Brooklyn songwriter Jack Medicine. The project is being arranged and produced by the high energy rock stylings of Velvet Rut.

English has also collaborated with Daniel Johnston and Jack Medicine in the Hyperjinx Tricycle project.^[3] English most recently created the artwork for Art Nouveau Magazine's first print issue.^[4]

English is the subject of a Pedro Carvajal documentary entitled Popaganda, named after one of his art books. He is also a subject of "The Art Army" action figures by Michael Leavitt.

On the March 4, 2012, episode of the television program The Simpsons, “Exit Through the Kwik-E-Mart” English (along with fellow artists Shepard Fairey, Kenny Scharf and Robbie Conal) appeared as a guest star, having earlier recorded his voice for the cartoon's animated version of himself.^[5]

Inspiration[link]

English takes inspiration from Andy Warhol and references him in his work. He also references the band KISS, and various cartoons. Also inspiration comes from the large billboards and posters he sees outside his Jersey City apartment, usually fast food companies.

English also references Picasso's Guernica. He has created dozens of versions, transforming the original Spanish civilian characters into Disney characters, Peanuts characters, soccer players, schoolchildren, and many others. He also painted the world's largest version of Guernica at the Station Museum in Houston. It is one foot longer and one foot wider than Picasso's original and features schoolchildren playacting the violent scene of the original.

See also[link]

• Subvertising

References[link]

External links[link]

• Popaganda
• Abraham Obama - Art Project
• VIDEO Ron English talks about his work on ABC FORA
• Opera Gallery Collection
• Ron English - Surreal Art Collective
• Songs In English - Music Project
• studioapart.com
• Fringe Galleries
• Ron English: Abraham Obama DVD Trailer
• Group show of street art curated by Ron English

Roger Quilter (1 November 1877 – 21 September 1953) was an English composer, known particularly for his songs.

Biography[link]

Born in Hove,^[1] Sussex, Quilter was a younger son of Sir William Quilter, 1st Baronet, who was a noted art collector. Quilter was educated at Eton College, later becoming a fellow-student of Percy Grainger, Cyril Scott and Henry Balfour Gardiner at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. He belonged to the Frankfurt Group, a circle of composers who studied at the Hoch Conservatory in the late 1890s. His reputation in England rests largely on his songs and on his light music for orchestra, such as his Children's Overture, with its interwoven nursery rhyme tunes, and a suite of music for the play Where the Rainbow Ends. He is noted as an influence on several English composers, including Peter Warlock.^[2]

Songs[link]

Roger Quilter's output of songs, more than one hundred in total, added to the canon of English art song that is still sung today. Among the most popular are "Love's Philosophy", "Come Away Death", "Weep You No More", "By the Sea", and his setting of "O Mistress Mine". Quilter's setting of verses from the Tennyson poem "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal" is one of his earliest songs but is nonetheless characteristic of the later, mature style.

In November 1936, Quilter's opera Julia was presented at Covent Garden by the British Music Drama Opera Company under the direction of Vladimir Rosing.

Quilter enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with the tenor Gervase Elwes until the latter's death in 1921. As a homosexual, he found it difficult to cope with some of the pressures which he felt were imposed upon him, and eventually deteriorated into mental illness after the loss of his nephew during the Second World War.^[3]

He died at his home in St John's Wood, London, a few months after celebrations to mark his 75th birthday.

Selected works[link]

• Songs of the Sea (1901)
• Where the Rainbow Ends (incidental music) (1911)
• Love at the Inn (opera)
• Five English Love Lyrics
• A Children's Overture (1914)
• Five Jacobean Lyrics
• To Julia, Op. 8 (texts of Robert Herrick) (1905)
• Three Pastoral Songs, Op. 22
• Seven Elizabethan Lyrics, Op. 12
• Three Shakespeare Songs, Op. 6
• Three English Dances, Op. 11

References[link]

1. ^ Middleton, Judy (2001). Brunswick Town. 
2. ^ "Grove Music Online Quilter, Roger". Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. 2008. http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?from=search&session_search_id=812525949&hitnum=1&section=music.22702&authstatuscode=200. Retrieved 2008-03-01. 
3. ^ Langfield, Valerie (2004). Roger Quilter 1877-1953: His Life, Times and Music. University of Birmingham 

External links[link]

• Roger Quilter Homepage
• Free scores by Roger Quilter at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Roger Quilter in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)