The Canaletto Collection at the Queen's Gallery in Buckingham Palace, Image from the film <em>Canaletto in Venice</em>, 2017, By David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky | Courtesy Nexo Digital
To the English travellers visiting Venice, the paintings of Antonio Canal must have seemed like splendid souvenirs. Thus, Canaletto-mania broke out across the Channel. In a few years, thanks to the art merchant and theatre impresario Owen Swiny, British aristocrats could embellish their estates with spectacular visions of the Serenissima. With the aid of an optical device, Canaletto offered his demanding public postcards of the Lagoon long before the invention of photography - from Piazza San Marco to the Canal Grande to the Palazzo Ducale, his brush turned out vivid and indelible depictions of the marvels of the Grand Tour. Then, the banker, collector and British Consul to Venice, Joseph Smith, took the artist under his wing. The canvases flowed copiously into the kingdom of George III who, in 1763, bought the entire collection of Smith. Approximately 50 paintings, 150 drawings and 15 rare engravings by Canaletto entered Britain’s Royal Collection where they can be found today. From the walls of the Queen’s Gallery, they invite visitors to Buckingham Palace to travel through the Venice of the 1700s, among gondolas bobbing upon the water, unmistakable architecture and masterfully depicted perspectives.
Charles Jeffrey, from king of club nights to fashion guru
The first UK exhibition presenting Glaswegian born designer, illustrator, stylist, radical creative, Charles Jeffrey - celebrating 10 years of his fashion house LOVERBOY.
Tate Britain presents Kenyan artist Zeinab Saleh for its Art Now series of exhibitions with a series of intimate paintings and drawings that trace fleeting movement and suspended time.
Lucian Freud is one of the most famous British artists of the 20th century. Known as a painter, Freud was also a keen printmaker. A collection of 143 etchings by Lucian Freud was acquired by the V&A in 2019. Today for the first time in this exhibition 38 of these etchings are presented to the public.
The Hay Wain is a painting by John Constable, completed in 1821, which depicts a rural scene on the River Stour between the English counties of Suffolk and Essex. It is regarded as "Constable's most famous image" and one of the greatest and most popular English paintings of all times.