Country Life’s best art stories of 2018: Monet, Andrew Graham-Dixon and Victorian Photoshopping

We've taken a look back through our archives from the year to pick out our top 10 articles of 2018 featuring the world's most breathtaking, inspiring and inspiring art from all sorts of genres and periods.

Two Ways of Life by Oscar Rejlander (Picture: Moderna Museet / Åsa Lund)
(Image credit: Two Ways of Life by Oscar Rejlander (Picture: Moderna Museet / Åsa Lund))

The 160-year-old ‘Photoshopped’ picture which shocked Victorian England

This fascinating look at the work of Victorian photographers focused on a remarkable work by the great Oscar Rejlander.

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The ancient roman temple which lay under London, undiscovered for over 17 centuries

The

The creation of a new building in central London unearthed a temple to the god Mithras which had lain undiscovered for almost two millennia.

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The paintings which show Monet’s genius for architecture as well as nature

The

(Image credit: Claude Monet - The Beach at Trouville, 1870, by Claude Monet ©National Gallery)

Think of Monet and you think of reflections and nature, but his works included huge amounts of architecture and other elements of the modern, technological age in which he lived.

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10 glorious paintings which perfectly encapsulate the art of the conversation piece

10

A look at this intimate and informal Georgian form of portraiture which celebrated families without the usual swagger or posturing.

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The photographer obsessed with why we all like to be beside the seaside

The

Knotted hankies at the ready for this look at some wonderful photographs documenting the British public's relationship with coastal resorts.

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A moment in time capturing the gulf between architects’ dreams and residents’ realities

A

Tony Ray-Jones was one of a generation of photographers who chronicled life in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, demonstrating the gulf between the dreams of town planners and the reality for the residents.

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My Favourite Painting: Andrew Graham-Dixon

My

(Image credit: Bridgeman Images)

'Lesson Number One: it’s the pictures that baffle and tantalise you that stay in the mind forever,' said the art historian and presenter about this staggering image.

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The Canadian hermit’s work that is a dystopian alternative to Monet

The

(Image credit: © The Estate of David Milne)

Canadian artist David Milne moved from city to country, eventually ending up as a hermit in a remote part of his homeland. This key work from that time is simultaneously impressionistic and brutally honest.

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The Van Dyck portrait that shows Charles I as monarch, connoisseur and proud father

The

(Image credit: Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), Charles I and Henrietta Maria with Prince Charles and Princess Mary (‘The Greate Peece’), 1632 Oil on canvas, 303.8 x 256.5 cm RCIN 405353 Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018 Exhibition organised in partnership with Royal Collection Trust)

Lilias Wigan takes a detailed look at Van Dyck's The Greate Peece, one of the highlights of the Royal Academy's stunning exhibition of the art collected by Charles I.

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How Holman Hunt’s Lady of Shallot was inspired by Van Eyck’s greatest masterpiece

How

Jan Van Eyck's iconic The Arnolfini Portrait inspired dozens of artists – but none to greater effect than Holman Hunt.

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Rory McEwan1

Jools Holland’s Favourite Painting

Jools Holland introduces his favourite painting – Tulip petal number 3

pope painting

Stephen Fry’s favourite painting

Stephen Fry shares why he loves this famous Velázquez painting of Pope Innocent X

The Massacre at Chios (1824) by Eugene Delacroix (Photographed by Peter Horree / Alamy)

Credit: Alamy

In Focus: A grim masterpiece of the French painter who became the ultimate storyteller in paint

Laura Freeman examines the brilliance and bravado of Eugène Delacroix’s paintings – including an extraordinary recreation of one of the most

Egon Schiele, The Cellist, 1910. Black crayon and watercolour on packing paper, 44.7 x 31.2 cm. The Albertina Museum, Vienna

Egon Schiele, The Cellist, 1910. Black crayon and watercolour on packing paper, 44.7 x 31.2 cm. The Albertina Museum, Vienna
(Image credit: The Albertina Museum, Vienna)

In Focus: A silent cellist, blazing with pleasure, by Klimt's great young protégé Schiele

When he first came on to the Vienna art scene, Egon Schiele hero-worshipped Gustav Klimt. Once they met the two

Boreray and the Stacs by Norman Ackroyd - 2010 (©Norman Ackroyd)

(Image credit: Boreray and the Stacs by Norman Ackroyd - 2010 (©Norman Ackroyd))

In Focus: The Norman Ackroyd landscape etchings that have sparked comparisons with Turner

This week marks the last chance to see Norman Ackroyd's sublime exhibition in Richmond. Lilias Wigan urges you to take


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.