Dynasty, revolution, and the Classical Age

Welcome to Britain, home to one of the biggest empires in history and a rich artistic heritage. We'll start in the 16th through the 18th centuries, years that saw the establishment of Britain–and British art–as we know it. As you travel through the following five galleries, remember that the art within them covers a vast length of time and reflects a period of constant change. And remember that this is just one thread of history (and art history) among many.

As we begin in the late 1500s, Elizabeth I was queen and England saw a renaissance of music, poetry, and theatre. William Shakespeare was hard at work on what would become some of the greatest works of English literature. Meanwhile, dominating the field of painting at the time were grand documentary images depicting family status and dynasty–like this painting of The Saltonstall Family typically attributed to David Des Granges.

Lush red hangings and ornate tapestries–all signs of wealth at the time–frame the family and give the painting a sense of grandeur. The head of the family links hands with his daughters, while the women to the right of the painting are his wives (yes, wives!) This is because the artist has chosen to depict both Sir Richard's current wife (the one seated with a baby) as well as his first wife (lying pale and motionless in the bed), who had died several years before the painting was made. Including both the living and the dead gives the painting an even bigger scope, capturing the entire family dynasty.

Portraiture continued to be among the most popular types of painting in Britain over the next two centuries. But a period of dramatic change–which saw the Plague of 1665, the Great Fire that decimated most of London in 1666, and a major political revolution–meant that art in Britain changed significantly, too. New genres like landscape painting, still life, and decorative painting were brought over and popularised by international artists. Migrants from Europe, like the Flemish Marcus Gheeraerts II, painted some of the most iconic portraits of Britons and introduced the nation to artistic genres that would shape its cultural heritage for the coming centuries.

Meanwhile, Britain was growing as a military and colonial power. In the meantime, artists like William Hogarth and Thomas Gainsborough were engaged in the trend of painting portraits of high society while following their own unique paths. Gainsborough became a champion of landscape painting while Hogarth painted his servants, a subject that was a far cry from the wealthy lords and ladies of society portraiture. Here he is in a self-portrait, portraying himself not as an upper crust gentleman but as an artisan in a simple haircut and humble cap. With his loyal pug, Trump.

Later on in the 1700s, artists like Sir Joshua Reynolds sought to elevate their society portraits and they did this in two ways: by making them bigger, and by referencing the old masters of art history and literature. Reynolds and his colleagues had developed this interest in classicism and the subjects of the Greek and Roman world following their studies of antiquity in Italy. This was shortly after the discovery of the Roman ruins of Pompeii, along with the publication of a highly influential history of ancient art by German scholar Winckelmann. This period saw paintings that were highly intellectualised, drawing on subjects from classical literature and from ancient Greek dramatists like Euripides. People of the time who looked at these paintings were expected to know how to "read" these references–which meant that they were expected to have a classical education. In this way, a great deal of British art of the time was limited to a specific societal class.

Like the portrait painters who created idealised images of (and for) the upper classes, Italian-born Agostino Brunias painted romanticised visions of a very different world: that of the sugar colonies in the Caribbean. In Dancing Scene in the West Indies, a group of men and women of African and mixed African and European descent dance through the streets to the accompanying music of tambourines and drums, perhaps celebrating a traditional pre-Lent carnival. The figures wear corsets and shirts in combination with headwraps and bare feet in an image of carefree celebration. But the reality of plantation life, and the economic reason for colonisation and the enslavement of people in the Caribbean–the production of sugar and coffee–is not explicitly visible. Brunias sold images like this one to colonial administrators, plantation landowners, and wealthy patrons in London and Paris. By doing so, he perpetuated an idealised image of life on the plantations and enabled those in power to turn a blind eye to the cruel reality of slavery.

And as the Napoleonic and Revolutionary wars raged in the lead up to the 19th century, painting in Britain became a tool for documenting (and glorifying) exploits on the battlefield. This warlike period saw the British empire expand through the Indian subcontinent and Africa, and strengthen its colonial holdings. As a result, the paintings of this time are imbued with a strong sense of national pride and ambition.