Country Life's 10 best arts stories of 2020, from the Hay Wain to a taped-up banana

The world of the arts has been heavily hit by the virus this year, but there were still some great highlights. We look back on the ones which proved most popular.

The Hay Wain by John Constable, oil on canvas, 1821, which lives at the National Gallery in London.
The Hay Wain by John Constable, oil on canvas, 1821, which lives at the National Gallery in London.
(Image credit: Ian Dagnall / Alamy)

How a taped banana questioned the meaning of art

Credit: PA

No, it's not quite what we expected either, but Carla Passino's piece at the very end of last year kept people musing throughout 2020.

Read the full article.


The story of the cottage featured in Constable’s The Hay Wain

Credit: Alamy

Kate Green took a look at the village of Flatford, which provided the inspiration for the classic depiction of rural life.

Read the full article.


The incomparable photography of Helmut Newton

Toby Keel looked at a glittering career that blurred the lines between fashion, photography and art.

Read the full article.

A photo posted by on


The forgotten masterpieces of Fabergé

Credit: Tessa Hallmann / Brighton and Hove Museum

A chance glimpse of purple and gold in a crowded cabinet led to an extraordinary discovery by Geoffrey Munn.

Read the full article.


How the belt of a goddess revealed the true colours of the Parthenon marbles

Credit: Getty

A mixture of research, original thought and a few gambles completely changed the academic community's perception of some of the world's greatest treasures, as Alexandra Fraser explained.

Read the full article.


David Hockney's years-long mission to ‘photograph the unphotographable'

Lilias Wigan looked at an exhibition of the artist's mission to create art that captures the natural wonder that is the Grand Canyon.

Read the full article.

A photo posted by on


How Spode went from local ceramics manufacturer to global fame and household name

Credit: Spode Museum Trust, Spode Society and Transferware Collectors Club

This year, Spode celebrated its 250th anniversary. Matthew Dennison told the story of how this English ceramics manufacturer, still based in the Potteries.

Read the full article.


The scandalous child of Empire, the murderous photographer and the woman who fatally brought them together

Credit: Alamy

Eadweard Muybridge was not only the pioneering photographer of motion, but also a murderer. Jason Goodwin told the tale of the dashing rogue and adventurer who became his victim.

Read the full article.


Piranesi, the architect, artist and engraver whose fantasy buildings won him 300 years of fame

In the 300th anniversary year of Piranesi’s birth, Huon Mallalieu celebrated the architectural fantasies of one of the most widely recognised names in 18th-century Italian art: Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

Read the full article.

A photo posted by on


My Favourite Painting: Jenni Murray

Credit: Alamy

The journalist and broadcaster Jenni Murray talked about a painting that she described as 'the first illustration of #MeToo'.

Read the full article.


A Canadian Trooper an his Horse, Alfred Munnings (1918).
(Image credit: Beaverbrook Collection of War Art at the Canadian War Museum Ottawa, www.warmuseum.ca.)

In Focus: The wartime masterpieces of Alfred Munnings

Huon Mallalieu welcomes the opportunity to see a significant body of wartime paintings alongside other works by Munnings in his

The Calstock Viaduct across the River Tamar in Cornwall on a misty late Summer morning.
(Image credit: Alamy Stock Photo)

The Tamar Valley AONB: Mines, otters and the ghost of a 'black widow' who roams the moors in a carriage of bones

Kate Green focuses on the Tamar Valley AONB.

Jusepe de Ribera, Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, 1644, Oil on canvas, 202 x 153 cm, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona. ©Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, 2018. Photo: Calveras/Mérida/Sagristà.

Jusepe de Ribera, Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, 1644, Oil on canvas, 202 x 153 cm, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona. ©Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, 2018. Photo: Calveras/Mérida/Sagristà.
(Image credit: ©Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, 2018. Photo: Calveras/Mérida/Sagristà.)

In Focus: The Spanish painter whose visceral depictions of martyrdom still have the power to shock

The unflinching representations of brutality in Jusepe de Ribera's images of martyrdom is the focus of a new exhibition, the

Nicola Benedetti.
(Image credit: Andy Gotts)

In Focus: How the violin virtuoso Nicola Benedetti is changing the way we teach music

The violinist Nicola Benedetti speaks to Claire Jackson about virtual teaching, playing Elgar and lobbying the government.

Toby Keel

Toby Keel is Country Life's Digital Director, and has been running the website and social media channels since 2016. A former sports journalist, he writes about property, cars, lifestyle, travel, nature.