Events relating to british_art
Work begins on the story of the Norman conquest, narrated in embroidery in the Bayeux tapestry

The English king, Richard II, commissions a diptych (the Wilton Diptych) showing himself being presented to the Virgin and Child

Hans Holbein the Younger pays his first visit to England, and stays with Thomas More in Chelsea
Nicholas Hilliard paints the delightful miniature known simply as Young Man among Roses
Van Dyck moves to London and becomes portrait painter to the British court and aristocracy
A painted ceiling by Rubens, celebrating the Stuart dynasty, is installed in the Banqueting House in Whitehall
Wood-carver Grinling Gibbons arrives from Holland to begin an immensely successful career in England
The Flemish-born sculptor Michael Rysbrack creates a momument to Newton in Westminster Abbey
Jack Broughton, champion of England, opens an academy to teach 'the mystery of boxing, that wholly British art'

English gardener Lancelot Brown sets up in business as a freelance 'improver of grounds', and soon acquires the nickname Capablity Brown

English painter Joseph Wright sets up a studio in his home town, Derby
Joshua Reynolds, by now the most fashionable portrait painter in London, copes with as many as 150 sitters in a year

Liverpool-born artist George Stubbs sets up in London as a painter, above all, of people and horses
Portrait-painter Thomas Gainsborough moves from Suffolk to set up a studio in fashionable Bath

Staffordshire potter Josiah Wedgwood sets up a factory of his own in his home town of Burslem
German painter Johann Zoffany moves to England to find work as a painter of conversation pieces and portraits

American artist Benjamin West settles in London, where he becomes famous for his large-scale history scenes

The Royal Academy is established in London, with Joshua Reynolds as its first president

Thomas Gainsborough moves from Bath to set up a studio in London
John Singleton Copley, already established as America's greatest portrait painter, moves to London

English painter J.M.W. Turner is only 15 when a painting of his, a watercolour, is first exhibited at the Royal Academy

Scottish painter Henry Raeburn depicts the Reverend Robert Walker skating on Duddingston Loch

English collector Thomas Hope publishes his Greek and Egyptian designs in Household Furniture and Interior Decoration
Wellington is presented with a twice-life-size nude marble statue, by Canova, of his vanquished enemy Napoleon
French painter Théodore Géricault begins a two-year visit to Britain