Peter Parker’s books include ‘A Little Book of Latin for Gardeners’ and 'Housman Country: Into the Heart of England' (both Little Brown)

For Howard Hodgkin, collecting was as important as painting

The artist amassed one of the finest private collections of Indian court paintings, an activity that preoccupied him as much as making art

2 Feb 2024

The London museum that is putting on its war paint

The new art, film and photography galleries at the Imperial War Museum contain many welcome surprises

9 Nov 2023
The view of Munstead Wood house across the west lawn.

Gertrude Jekyll and the making of Munstead Wood

The first garden created by the designer for a house by Edwin Lutyens has been bought by the National Trust – preserving a vital piece of history

25 Aug 2023

The family that made John Singer Sargent feel at home

The painter’s close friendship with the Wertheimers is quite evident in the many portraits he made of them all

30 Jan 2023
Portrait of the artist Denis Wirth-Miller

The British painter who was bullied into obscurity

Denis Wirth-Miller was unfairly dismissed as an imitator of his friend Francis Bacon, but it’s now clear that his detractors were wholly in the wrong

17 Nov 2022

The forgotten British modernist who hid her paintings under a bed

A new book does justice to the life and work of the little-known artist Suzanne Cooper

24 Oct 2022

Cult status – the idiosyncratic portraits of Glyn Philpot

The painter’s contemporaries saw him as a successor to Sargent, but his depictions of Black and queer subjects may stand out more today

28 Apr 2022
Helmut Berger in drag

How to make a queer museum

The charity Queer Britain is opening the country’s first space dedicated to LGBTQ+ culture, but will its programme entertain as well as educate?

28 Mar 2022
Richard Chopping’s covers for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1963) and Goldfinger (1959) by Ian Fleming.

Dust jackets and dinner jackets – the man who illustrated Bond

Richard Chopping’s striking designs for Ian Fleming’s novels add greatly to the books’ allure for collectors – but his artistic talent went far beyond Bond

31 Aug 2021
The Mood of Kota Palace (detail), (c. 1700), unknown artist, Udaipur. National

The court painters who magnified the princely pleasures of a Rajput dynasty

Paintings from the north-west Indian city of Udaipur present life at court as a royal playground

25 Mar 2021
Untitled #22 (1976), from the series 'Christopher Street', Sunil Gupta.

From rural India to Greenwich Village – life through the lens of Sunil Gupta

The photographer’s first UK retrospective explores his abiding interest in the experience of outsiders in society

21 Oct 2020
(1936), Barnett Freedman for London Transport.

‘Britain’s most visible artist’ – Barnett Freedman at Pallant House, reviewed

Freedman’s engaging designs were once impossible to avoid – and his lesser-known war paintings are a revelation

1 Sep 2020
Arthur Jeffress photographed in the 1920s.

Galleries and gondoliers – the life and times of Arthur Jeffress

The dealer and collector is usually a footnote in other people’s stories. A new biography makes him the main event

17 Jun 2020
Wrap-around dust jacket designed by John Minton for Elizabeth David’s A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950)

Lads and lobsters – John Minton’s food illustrations

The artist’s designs for Elizabeth David’s cookery books evoke a happy world of fine living and dining

13 Apr 2020
Photo of F.E. McWilliam’s studio in 1939

Show business – the artists who realised a house could be more than just a home

Artists who had studios and homes specially built for them often wanted to create spaces that would boost their careers

23 Mar 2020
Chansonette (1928), Erna Schmidt-Caroll.

Club scenes – the art of the cabaret at the Barbican

In cities across the world, the cultural avant-garde has often hunkered down – and expressed itself – in nightclubs and bars

1 Nov 2019
Sir Hans Sloane, Bt, 1736, Stephen Slaughter. National Portrait Gallery, London

The private collector who made the British Museum

A new biography of physician-collector Hans Sloane portrays a flawed yet fascinating man

11 Dec 2017
Letters from Bombay (2012-14), Howard Hodgkin. © Howard Hodgkin, Courtesy the artist and Gagosian

How India inspired Howard Hodgkin

‘Painting India’ at the Hepworth Wakefield includes many of the artist’s most engaging and joyful paintings

2 Sep 2017

Paul Nash’s commitment to the English landscape

The artist’s feeling for place is a constant throughout his work – in both peacetime and war

13 Jan 2017

Art and life in the work of Bhupen Khakhar

A welcome exhibition of the Indian artist’s work reveals how he found inspiration in even the smallest of details

18 Jul 2016