The artists who were obsessed with West Sussex
Blake, Constable and Ivon Hitchens all feature in Alexandra Harris’s account of a place she knows well, but it’s the more obscure figures who really shine
The Victorians who were drawn to colour
The Ashmolean’s new show vividly demonstrates how strong colours became a mainstay of 19th-century art
The landscape that shaped Gainsborough’s view of the world
The painter’s house in Suffolk now tells a compelling story about his formative influence
The greatness of Constable’s lateness
In the decade before his death, John Constable developed a freer hand to follow new visions – to astonishing effect
Sting in the tale – how Gustave Moreau added bite to La Fontaine’s fables
Rarely exhibited since their creation, the intense, jewel-like watercolours of the French symbolist make for exhilarating viewing
Walter Scott conjured up a playground for painters – and they fixed his fantasy of Scotland in place
The novelist may be little read today, but his fiction inspired an enduring, Romantic vision of the past
The British artists who saw a world on their doorsteps
Landscape painting went local in 19th-century Britain, writes Susan Owens, as artists celebrated the miniature marvels they found close to home
That’s the spirit – how the Romans imagined the dead
The various ways in which the ancient Romans depicted figures from the afterlife tell us much about contemporary preoccupations
Making a scene – how the Victorians brought the past to life
Recreating scenes from famous paintings has been all the rage of lockdown, but it’s the Victorians who first played make-believe in earnest
Cairene conversions – the adopted identities of John Frederick Lewis
The Victorian painter certainly had a penchant for play-acting, but his depictions of Egypt remain something of an enigma
How to cope with Stendhal syndrome when it strikes
The mysterious affliction usually only assails art buffs in Florence – but with many museums finally set to reopen, will visitors start dropping like flies?