George Stubbs, born 300 years ago, found Nature superior to art and approached his pictures with the eye of an anatomy scholar, yet no contemporary could rival him in capturing the elegance and character of racehorses, dogs and even zebras, as Jack Watkins discovers.
The great master Leonardo da Vinci was on course to create an equine statue that could have rivalled his greatest pieces — until fate intervened. Carla Passino tells the tale of the da Vinci sculpture that never was.
A chance encounter with a cabinet miniature sent two art historians down a rabbit hole of Elizabethan intrigue, spycraft and courtship.
The note, printed in 1998 to celebrate 100 years of Philippine independence, is legal tender and larger than a piece of A4 paper.
Rex Whistler, determined that the Second World War shouldn’t be left to young boys, worked hard to become an officer and lead troops into battle, but the naivety of early courage cost him his life on his very first day of battle, as Allan Mallinson reveals.
From August 29, you can bid on rare guitars, a Steinway piano from Abbey Road, art by John Lennon and a costume from Gladiator II, among other items.
For decades in the early 20th century, the Olympic Games included events in art, literature and music. Only one person won more than a single gold medal in those years: Jean Jacoby, a painter from Luxembourg who remains his country's most decorated Olympian.
One of the oldest foundries in the world, Morris Singer in Hampshire has a long and storied past, creating art and sculpture for everyone from artists to dictators.
70 years on from the death of Frida Kahlo, Carla Passino takes a look at the work and life of the trailblazing artist.
When the Olympics opened in Paris in 1924, the French capital was already gripped by a ferocious blend of art, literature, cinema, fashion and a wild desire to dance. Sport merged into this culture to become the pinnacle of an extraordinary time, as Mary Miers reveals.
A 15th-century cannon, an 18th-century flintlock belt-pistol and two swords excavated near Castillon, the site of the battle that ended Britain's rule in south-western France, featured prominently in an Olympia Auctions sale last month.
Centuries of portraits down the ages — and vanishingly few in which the subjects smile. Carla Passino delves into the reasons why, and discovers some fascinating answers.
The museum scooped the prestigious Museum of the Year award, the largest in the world, pocketing £120,000 after a three-year renovation.
The railway may have started its artistic life as a fire-breathing monster that devoured the countryside, but it soon became an emblem of advancing modernity, a cherished memento of the past and even, in the case of one station, the centre of the universe. Carlo Passino explains.
The painting that secured Titian’s reputation as 'the greatest painter of the Venetian Renaissance' is going up for sale, 30 years after it was recovered in a carrier bag in the most unlikely of spots.
The world-renowned landscape photographer Charlie Waite joins the Country Life Podcast.
The actor Rob Houchen chooses a bold and challenging Egon Schiele work.
Five collectors of unusual things, from taxidermy to tanks, tulips to teddies, explain their passions to Country Life. Interviews by Agnes Stamp, Tiffany Daneff, Kate Green and Octavia Pollock. Photographs by Millie Pilkington, Mark Williamson and Richard Cannon.
