So Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo in October 1876, charting the latest instalment of the Holbein cult. He was renting a room in Isleworth, west London, still hoping for a religious career

The Marlborough Family by Sir Joshua Reynolds

England in the 18th century had no love for its landscape, preferring instead Italianate views, until George Stubbs came and decided to paint his horses true to the setting in which they lived, as Bendor Grosvenor reveals

Exhibition of the week Lucian Freud: Drawing into ...

John Piper was a modernist who rejected Modernism, a versatile artist who defied categories, but one who remained true to the spirit and detail of the places he painted

Objects and props, theatrical lighting and the hint of hidden narratives mark an evolution in Michael Alford’s approach to painting the female nude. With an abiding interest in depicting human figures