Art and Antiques

My favourite painting: John Lewis-Stempel

The award-winning Nature writer and regular Country Life contributor John Lewis-Stempel chooses a bucolic scene with quite probably the longest title of any artwork ever to feature on this page.

My favourite painting: Gavin Plumley

Gavin Plumley, author and cultural historian, selects an unusual canvas with two painters credited.

The English country house as seen in the art of Turner, Constable and their modern-day successors

Ever since a craze for house portraits reached Britain in the 17th century, great artists such as J. M. W. Turner have been producing sweeping vistas of stately Edens, observes Michael Prodger.

My Favourite Painting: Martha Lytton Cobbold

Martha Lytton Cobbold of Historic Houses selects a magnificent depiction of the power of nature.

My Favourite Painting: Nick Trend

The journalist and art historian Nick Trend chooses a striking Jan van Eyck portrait.

The art of the storm, from Turner and Rembrandt to Rousseau and Hokusai

Extreme weather has long loomed large in the artist’s imagination. Michael Prodger celebrates the poetic beauty of Nature’s all-consuming fury.

My Favourite Painting: Jamie Hambro

Jamie Hambro picks Low Life by Edwin Landseer.

My favourite painting: Felix Francis

The thriller writer Felix Francis chooses a classic image by Munnings that 'perfectly sums up the excitement of horse racing'.

My favourite painting: Hugo Barclay

Hugo Barclay, director of the Affordable Art Fair, chooses an unusual Picasso.

My favourite painting: Greg Doran

Theatre director Greg Doran chooses a domestic work by one of the great masters.

Marianne North: The intrepid Victorian who climbed mountains and paddled up rapids to create unforgettable natural art

Victorian artist Marianne North braved jungle rapids, forests and mountains to capture the blowsy beauty of tropical plants on canvas. Carla Passino paints the life of a woman who defied conventions to forge her own path.

My favourite painting: Sholto Kynoch

The musician Sholto Kynoch picks a Caspar David Friedrich landscape.

My favourite painting: Giles Coren

Giles Coren picks 'an oil sketch gone wrong' by his school friend Jonathan Yeo.

My favourite painting: Carmel Allen

Carmel Allen, managing director of Tate, chooses an unforgettable image from one of the Scottish Colourists.

How the Bloomsbury Group shaped life in London WC1

There’s more to the Bloomsbury Group than squares, circles and triangles, says Rosemary Hill, who explores what drew its members to London’s WC1 in the first place and the lasting effect they had on it.

My Favourite Painting: Levison Wood

The explorer Levison Wood chooses a dramatic portrait of war dating back 150 years.

My favourite painting: Claire German

Claire German of the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, chooses an incomparable Tudor portrait of one of the great men of his time: Holbein's portrait of Thomas Cromwell.

My favourite painting: Anthony Mould

The art dealer Anthony Mould chooses a rarity: a human portrait by Stubbs.

Stephen Millership: The man whose classic posters distill the spirit of the British countryside

From the mauve sky of Waterloo Sunset to the pastoral Arcadia of rolling fields in God’s Own Country, Stephen Millership’s evocative travel scenes capture Great Britain’s soul. Andrew Liddle meets the man behind the art.

My favourite painting: Miranda Rock

Miranda Rock of the Burghley horse trials chooses a floral masterpiece bought almost 350 years ago by two of her ancestors.