Having formerly spent 20 years in television I am well aware that making interesting and appealing arts programmes isn’t easy. It’s one thing for producers …

In my opinion unframed oil paintings should only be seen on an artist’s easel or in a conservator’s studio. I would personally never show a …

Robert Alexander Hillingford is usually categorised as a ‘military painter’ or ‘costume realist’ but neither label does him or his work justice. I think his …

By the second half of the 19th century the city of Florence – once home to Raphael and birthplace of the High Renaissance – had …

In the earliest days of the Royal Academy in London, during the reign of King George III, the name of Richard Morton Paye was a …

Nathaniel Sichel was born in Mainz in 1843, and aged 16 he entered the Berlin Academy of Art to study under Julius Schrader (1815-1900). In …

Philip Hermogenes Calderon was born in Poitiers in France in 1833, the son of a Spanish priest who had turned his back on the church …

Jean-François Portaels was born in the city of Vilvoorde in Belgium in 1818 and as the son of a wealthy father was, aged 18, able …

Richard Redgrave (1804-1888) was one of the most successful British artists of the 19th century; a Royal Academician with an eye for colour and a …

In 1846, aged 17, Auguste Toulmouche moved to Paris to become a pupil of the eminent French painter Charles Gleyre. Gleyre’s register at the time …