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220-645: The Art of the United Kingdom refers to all forms of visual art in or associated with the United Kingdom since the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 and encompasses English art , Scottish art , Welsh art and Irish art , and forms part of Western art history . During the 18th century, Britain began to reclaim the leading place England had previously played in European art during

440-828: A fair trial . The English monarchs, through inheritance of substantial territories in France and claims to the French crown, were also heavily involved in conflicts in France, most notably the Hundred Years' War , while the Kings of Scots were in an alliance with the French during this period. Early modern Britain saw religious conflict resulting from the Reformation and the introduction of Protestant state churches in each country. The English Reformation ushered in political, constitutional, social and cultural change in

660-520: A gibbet at Tyburn . In 1669, the abbey was visited by the diarist Samuel Pepys , who saw the body of the 15th-century queen Catherine de Valois . She had been buried in the 13th-century Lady chapel in 1437, but was exhumed during building work for the Henry VII Chapel and not reburied in the intervening 150 years. Pepys leaned into the coffin and kissed her on the mouth, writing "This was my birthday, thirty-six years old and I did first kiss

880-521: A subpolar oceanic climate . Higher elevations in Scotland experience a continental subarctic climate and the mountains experience a tundra climate . The prevailing wind is from the southwest and bears frequent spells of mild and wet weather from the Atlantic Ocean, although the eastern parts are mostly sheltered from this wind. Since the majority of the rain falls over the western regions,

1100-604: A welfare state was established, and a comprehensive, publicly funded healthcare system, the National Health Service , was created. The rise of nationalism in the colonies coincided with Britain's much-diminished economic position, so that a policy of decolonisation was unavoidable. Independence was granted to India and Pakistan in 1947. Over the next three decades, most colonies of the British Empire gained their independence, and many became members of

1320-515: A Little Cloister, on the site of the monks' infirmary. The Little Cloister dates from the end of the 17th century and contains a small garden with a fountain in the centre. A passageway from the Little Cloister leads to College Garden , which has been in continuous use for 900 years, beginning as the medicine garden for the monks of the abbey and now overlooked by canons' houses and the dormitory for Westminster School . The newest part of

1540-499: A bomb that fell outside the chapel. No one was killed, and the abbey continued to hold services throughout the war. When hostilities ceased, evacuated objects were returned to the abbey, 60,000 sandbags were moved out, and a new permanent roof was built over the crossing. Two different designs for a narthex (entrance hall) for the west front were produced by architects Edwin Lutyens and Edward Maufe during World War II, but neither

1760-411: A colourful and minutely detailed style, rejecting the loose painterly brushwork of the tradition represented by "Sir Sloshua" Reynolds. PRB artists included John Everett Millais , William Holman Hunt , Dante Gabriel Rossetti , and Ford Madox Brown (never officially a member), and figures such as Edward Burne-Jones and John William Waterhouse were later much influenced by aspects of their ideas, as

1980-515: A community of Benedictine monks on the site. At that time, the location was an island in the Thames called Thorney Island . This building has not survived, but archaeologists have found some pottery and foundations from this period on the abbey site. Between 1042 and 1052, Edward the Confessor began rebuilding Saint Peter's Abbey to provide himself with a royal burial church. It was built in

2200-535: A formidable figure in society;, the public leader of the arts in Britain. He had studied both classical and modern Italian art, and his compositions discreetly re-use models seen on his travels. He could convey a wide range of moods and emotions, whether heroic military men or very young women, and often to unite background and figure in a dramatic way. The Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce had been founded in 1754, principally to provide

2420-503: A great diversity of art, and a far bigger quantity created than before. Much Victorian art is now out of critical favour, with interest concentrated on the Pre-Raphaelites and the innovative movements at the end of the 18th century. The training of artists, which had long been neglected, began to improve in the 18th century through private and government initiatives, and greatly expanded in the 19th century. Public exhibitions and

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2640-444: A jawbone which was taken by a boy from Westminster School and kept by his family until 1906, when it was returned to the abbey. In the 1830s, the screen dividing the nave from the choir, which had been designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, was replaced by one designed by Edward Blore . The screen contains the monuments to the scientist Isaac Newton and the military general James Stanhope . Further rebuilding and restoration occurred in

2860-752: A land border with the Republic of Ireland ; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean , the North Sea , the English Channel , the Celtic Sea , and the Irish Sea . The United Kingdom had an estimated population of over 68.2 million people in 2023. The capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom is London , whose wider metropolitan area is

3080-555: A landscape. Painters of these included Frederick Walker , Luke Fildes (although he made his name in 1874 with Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward - see above), Frank Holl , George Clausen , and the German Hubert von Herkomer . William Bell Scott , a friend of the Rossettis, painted historical scenes and other types of work, but was also one of the few artists to depict scenes from heavy industry. His memoirs are

3300-410: A lantern tower was never built. The current squat pyramid dates from the 18th century; the painted wooden ceiling below it was installed during repairs to World War II bomb damage. In the early 16th century, a project began under Abbot John Islip to add two towers to the western end of the church. These had been partially built up to roof level when building work stopped due to uncertainty caused by

3520-399: A leading role in the movement to abolish slavery worldwide through the blockade of Africa and pressing other nations to end their trade with a series of treaties. In 1800 the parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland each passed an Act of Union, uniting the two kingdoms and creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801. After the defeat of France at the end of

3740-515: A location for exhibitions. In 1761 Reynolds was a leader in founding the rival Society of Artists of Great Britain , where the artists had more control. This continued until 1791, despite the founding of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768, which immediately became both the most important exhibiting organization and the most important school in London. Reynolds was its first President, holding

3960-557: A monastic and royal treasury. The outer walls and circular piers also date to the 11th century; several capitals were enriched in the 12th century, and the stone altar was added in the 13th century. The term pyx refers to the boxwood chest in which coins were held and presented to a jury during the Trial of the Pyx , when newly minted coins were presented to ensure they conformed to the required standards. The chapter house and Pyx Chamber are in

4180-853: A policy of splendid isolation in Europe, and attempted to contain Russian influence in Afghanistan and Persia , in what came to be known as the Great Game . During this time, Canada , Australia and New Zealand were granted self-governing dominion status. At the turn of the century, Britain's industrial dominance became challenged by the German Empire and the United States . The Edwardian era saw social reform and home rule for Ireland become important domestic issues, while

4400-448: A portraitist in the informal style of many of his portraits of his family. He continued to paint pure landscapes, largely for pleasure until his later years; full recognition of his landscapes came only in the 20th century. His main influences were French in his portraits and Dutch in his landscapes, rather than Italian, and he is famous for the brilliant light touch of his brushwork. George Romney also became prominent in about 1770 and

4620-602: A precursor to the House of Commons . Henry III also commissioned the Cosmati pavement in front of the High Altar. Further work produced an additional five bays for the nave, bringing it to one bay west of the choir . Here, construction stopped in about 1269. By 1261, Henry had spent £29,345 19s 8d on the abbey, and the final sum may have been near £50,000. A consecration ceremony was held on 13   October 1269, during which

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4840-409: A private enterprise which sought to compete with Continental factories mostly established by rulers. Roubiliac's style formed that of the leading native sculptor Sir Henry Cheere , and his brother John who specialized in statues for gardens. The strong London silversmithing trade was dominated by the descendants of Huguenot refugees like Paul de Lamerie , Paul Crespin , Nicholas Sprimont , and

5060-451: A queen." She has since been re-interred close to her husband, Henry V. In 1685, during preparations for the coronation of James II , a workman accidentally put a scaffolding pole through the coffin of Edward the Confessor. A chorister, Charles Taylour, pulled a cross on a chain out of the coffin and gave it to the king, who then gave it to the Pope. Its whereabouts are unknown. At the end of

5280-573: A redecoration. During the period Rococo and Chinoiserie gave way to Neo-Classicism , with the Scottish architect and interior designer Robert Adam (1728–1792) leading the new style. The late 18th century and the early 19th century characterized by the Romantic movement in British art includes Joseph Wright of Derby , James Ward , Samuel Palmer , Richard Parkes Bonington , John Martin and

5500-507: A result of a shortage of workers in the 1950s, the government encouraged immigration from Commonwealth countries . In the following decades, the UK became a more multi-ethnic society. Despite rising living standards in the late 1950s and 1960s, the UK's economic performance was less successful than many of its main competitors such as France, West Germany and Japan. The UK was the first democratic nation to lower its voting age to 18 in 1969. In

5720-811: A series of connected wars (including the English Civil War ) which led to the temporary overthrow of the monarchy, with the execution of King Charles I , and the establishment of the short-lived unitary republic of the Commonwealth of England , Scotland and Ireland. Although the monarchy was restored , the Interregnum along with the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the subsequent Bill of Rights 1689 in England and Claim of Right Act 1689 in Scotland ensured that, unlike much of

5940-464: A service of evening prayer with archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams . On 29   April 2011, the abbey hosted the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton . In 2018, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries were opened. Located in the medieval triforium , high up around the sanctuary, they are areas for displaying the abbey's treasures. A new Gothic access tower with a lift was designed by

6160-531: A short, square, eastern end (as was the English fashion), Westminster Abbey has a long, rounded apse , and it also has chapels radiating from the ambulatory, which is typical of a French Gothic style. However, there are also distinctively English elements, such as the use of materials of contrasting colours, as with the Purbeck marble and white stone in the crossing. The northern entrance has three porches, with

6380-525: A strong chiaroscuro effect. Paintings recording scenes from the theatre were another subgenre, painted by the German Johann Zoffany among others. Zoffany painted portraits and conversation pieces, who also spent over two years in India, painting the English nabobs and local scenes, and the expanding British Empire played an increasing role in British art. Training in art was considered

6600-486: A useful skill in the military for sketch maps and plans, and many British officers made the first Western images, often in watercolour, of scenes and places around the world. In India, the Company style developed as a hybrid form between Western and Indian art , produced by Indians for a British market. Thomas Rowlandson produced watercolours and prints satirizing British life, but mostly avoided politics. The master of

6820-458: A useful source for the period, and he was one of several artists to be employed for a period in the greatly expanded system of government art schools, which were driven by the administrator Henry Cole (the inventor of the Christmas card ) and employed Richard Redgrave , Edward Poynter , Richard Burchett , the Scottish designer Christopher Dresser and many others. Burchett was headmaster of

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7040-677: A woman chained herself to her chair during a sermon by the Archbishop of Canterbury . On 11   June 1914, a bomb planted by suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union exploded inside the abbey. No serious injuries were reported, but the bomb blew off a corner of the Coronation Chair. It also caused the Stone of Scone to break in half, although this was not discovered until 1950 when four Scottish nationalists broke into

7260-541: Is a country in Northwestern Europe , off the coast of the continental mainland . It comprises England , Scotland , Wales , and Northern Ireland . The UK includes the island of Great Britain , the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland , and most of the smaller islands within the British Isles , making up a total area of 94,354 square miles (244,376 km ). Northern Ireland shares

7480-466: Is at Greenwich Hospital , Blenheim Palace and the cupola of Saint Paul's Cathedral, London . His drawings show a taste for strongly drawn realism in the direction his son-in-law William Hogarth was to pursue, but this is largely overridden in the finished works, and for Greenwich he took to heart his careful list of "Objections that will arise from the plain representation of the King's landing as it

7700-403: Is chiefly built in a Geometric Gothic style, using Reigate stone for facings. The church has an eleven-bay nave with aisles , transepts , and a chancel with ambulatory and radiating chapels . The building is supported with two tiers of flying buttresses . The western end of the nave and the west front were designed by Henry Yevele in a Perpendicular Gothic style. The Henry VII Chapel

7920-564: Is chiefly inspired by 13th-century French and English styles, although some sections of the church have earlier Romanesque styles or later Baroque and modern styles. The Henry VII Chapel , at the east end of the church, is a typical example of Perpendicular Gothic architecture; antiquarian John Leland called it orbis miraculum ("the wonder of the world"). The abbey is the burial site of more than 3,300 people , many prominent in British history: monarchs, prime ministers , poets laureate , actors, musicians, scientists, military leaders, and

8140-523: Is closed to the public, except for special events. The abbey includes side chapels radiating from the ambulatory. Many were originally included in the 13th-century rebuilding as altars dedicated to individual saints, and many of the chapels still bear saints' names (such as St Nicholas and St Paul). Saints' cults were no longer orthodox after the English Reformation, and the chapels were repurposed as places for extra burials and monuments. In

8360-532: Is in the Bayeux Tapestry . The foundations still survive under the present church, and above ground, some of the lower parts of the monastic dormitory survive in the undercroft , including a door said to come from the previous Anglo-Saxon abbey. It was a little smaller than the current church, with a central tower. In 1103, thirty-seven years after his death, Edward's tomb was re-opened by Abbot Gilbert Crispin and Henry I , who discovered that his body

8580-481: Is only the one specific nominal term 'Great Britain' which invariably excludes Northern Ireland". The BBC historically preferred to use "Britain" as shorthand only for Great Britain, though the present style guide does not take a position except that "Great Britain" excludes Northern Ireland. The adjective "British" is commonly used to refer to matters relating to the United Kingdom and is used in law to refer to United Kingdom citizenship and nationality . People of

8800-538: Is ranked 2nd out of 180 countries in the Environmental Performance Index . A law has been passed that UK greenhouse gas emissions will be net zero by 2050. England accounts for 53 per cent of the UK, covering 50,350 square miles (130,395 km ). Most of the country consists of lowland terrain, with upland and mountainous terrain northwest of the Tees–Exe line which roughly divides

9020-599: Is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole. The word England is occasionally used incorrectly to refer to the United Kingdom as a whole, a mistake principally made by people from outside the UK. The term "Britain" is used as a synonym for Great Britain , but also sometimes for the United Kingdom. Usage is mixed: the UK Government prefers to use the term "UK" rather than "Britain" or "British" on its website (except when referring to embassies), while acknowledging that both terms refer to

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9240-579: Is the Isle of Wight . Scotland accounts for 32 per cent of the UK, covering 30,410 square miles (78,772 km ). This includes nearly 800 islands , notably the Hebrides , Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. Scotland is the most mountainous constituent country of the UK, the Highlands to the north and west are the more rugged region containing the majority of Scotland's mountainous land, including

9460-727: Is the highest peak in Wales. Wales has over 1,680 miles (2,704 kilometres) of coastline including the Pembrokeshire Coast . Several islands lie off the Welsh mainland, the largest of which is Anglesey ( Ynys Môn ). Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey , formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster , is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster , London, England. Since 1066, it has been

9680-524: Is the only major English saint whose body still occupies his shrine. Arranged around him in a horseshoe shape are a series of tombs of medieval kings and their queens: Henry III, Eleanor of Castile , Edward I, Philippa of Hainault , Edward III , Anne of Bohemia , and Richard II. Henry V is in the centre of the horseshoe, at the eastern end. Henry III's tomb was originally covered with pieces of coloured glass and stone, since picked off by generations of tourists. Above Henry V's tomb, at mezzanine level over

9900-588: The 1884 Reform Act championed by William Gladstone granting suffrage to a majority of males for the first time. The British population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation , causing significant social and economic stresses. By the late 19th century, the Conservatives under Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Salisbury initiated a period of imperial expansion in Africa , maintained

10120-534: The Atlantic slave trade , mainly between 1662 and 1807 when British or British-colonial slave ships transported nearly 3.3 million slaves from Africa. The slaves were taken to work on plantations , principally in the Caribbean but also North America . However, with pressure from the abolitionism movement , Parliament banned the trade in 1807, banned slavery in the British Empire in 1833, and Britain took

10340-650: The Battle of Culloden in 1746, after which the Scottish Highlanders were forcibly assimilated into Scotland by revoking the feudal independence of clan chiefs . The British colonies in North America that broke away in the American War of Independence became the United States . British imperial ambition turned towards Asia, particularly to India . British merchants played a leading part in

10560-663: The Cairngorms , Loch Lomond and The Trossachs and Ben Nevis which at 1,345 metres (4,413 ft) is the highest point in the British Isles. Wales accounts for less than 9 per cent of the UK, covering 8,020 square miles (20,779 km ). Wales is mostly mountainous, though South Wales is less mountainous than North and mid Wales . The highest mountains in Wales are in Snowdonia and include Snowdon ( Welsh : Yr Wyddfa ) which, at 1,085 metres (3,560 ft),

10780-468: The Commonwealth of Nations . The UK was the third country to develop a nuclear weapons arsenal (with its first atomic bomb test, Operation Hurricane , in 1952), but the post-war limits of Britain's international role were illustrated by the Suez Crisis of 1956. The international spread of the English language ensured the continuing international influence of its literature and culture . As

11000-487: The Courtauld family , as well as Georges Wickes . Orders were received from as far away as the courts of Russia and Portugal, though English styles were still led by Paris. The manufacture of silk at Spitalfields in London was also a traditional Huguenot business, but from the late 1720s silk design was dominated by the surprising figure of Anna Maria Garthwaite , a parson's daughter from Lincolnshire who emerged at

11220-406: The English Civil War especially popular sources for subjects. Many painters mentioned elsewhere painted historical subjects, including Millais ( The Boyhood of Raleigh and many others), Ford Madox Brown ( Cromwell on his Farm ), David Wilkie, Watts and Frith, and West, Bonington and Turner in earlier decades. The London-based Irishman Daniel Maclise and Charles West Cope painted scenes for

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11440-584: The English Reformation . In the 1530s, Henry VIII broke away from the authority of the Catholic Church in Rome and seized control of England's monasteries , including Westminster Abbey, beginning the English Reformation . In 1535, when the king's officers assessed the abbey's funds, their annual income was £3,000. Henry's agents removed many relics, saints' images, and treasures from

11660-767: The European Convention on Human Rights . The UK remained a great power with global diplomatic and military influence and a leading role in the United Nations and NATO . The UK broadly supported the United States' approach to the " war on terror " in the early 21st century. British troops fought in the War in Afghanistan , but controversy surrounded Britain's military deployment in Iraq , which saw

11880-416: The European Union (EU) in 1992, the UK was one of the 12 founding member states. From the late 1960s, Northern Ireland suffered communal and paramilitary violence (sometimes affecting other parts of the UK) conventionally known as the Troubles . It is usually considered to have ended with the 1998 Belfast "Good Friday" Agreement . Following a period of widespread economic slowdown and industrial strife in

12100-428: The Falkland Islands , leading to the 10-week Falklands War in which Argentine forces were defeated. The inhabitants of the islands are predominantly descendants of British settlers, and strongly favour British sovereignty, expressed in a 2013 referendum . From 1984, the UK economy was helped by the inflow of substantial North Sea oil revenues. Another British overseas territory, Gibraltar , ceded to Great Britain in

12320-404: The French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815), the United Kingdom emerged as the principal naval and imperial power (with London the largest city in the world from about 1830). Unchallenged at sea , British dominance was later described as Pax Britannica ("British Peace"), a period of relative peace among the great powers (1815–1914) during which the British Empire became

12540-439: The Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland united under the Treaty of Union to create the Kingdom of Great Britain . The Acts of Union 1800 incorporated the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Most of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922 as the Irish Free State , and the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 created the present United Kingdom. The UK became

12760-463: The Labour Party emerged from an alliance of trade unions and small socialist groups in 1900, and suffragettes campaigned for women's right to vote. Britain was one of the principal Allies that defeated the Central Powers in the First World War (1914–1918). Alongside their French, Russian and (after 1917) American counterparts, British armed forces were engaged across much of the British Empire and in several regions of Europe, particularly on

12980-418: The Middle Ages , being especially strong in portraiture and landscape art . Increased British prosperity at the time led to a greatly increased production of both fine art and the decorative arts , the latter often being exported. The Romantic period resulted from very diverse talents, including the painters William Blake , J. M. W. Turner , John Constable and Samuel Palmer . The Victorian period saw

13200-518: The Palace of Westminster . The Protestant Reformations of England and Scotland were especially destructive of existing religious art, and the production of new work virtually ceased. The Artists of the Tudor Court were mostly imported from Europe, setting a pattern that would continue until the 18th century. The portraiture of Elizabeth I ignored contemporary European Renaissance models to create iconic images that border on naive art . The portraitists Hans Holbein and Anthony van Dyck were

13420-438: The Public Record Office in 1863. It was restored by George Gilbert Scott in the 19th century. The entrance is approached from the east cloister via outer and inner vestibules , and the ceiling becomes higher as a visitor approaches the chapter house. It is an octagonal room with a central pillar, built with a small crypt below. Around the sides are benches for 80 monks, above which are large stained-glass windows depicting

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13640-405: The Representation of the People Act 1918 . After the war, Britain became a permanent member of the Executive Council of the League of Nations and received a mandate over a number of former German and Ottoman colonies. Under the leadership of David Lloyd George , the British Empire reached its greatest extent, covering a fifth of the world's land surface and a quarter of its population. By

13860-460: The Romanesque style and was the first church in England built on a cruciform floorplan. The master stonemason for the project was Leofsi Duddason, with Godwin and Wendelburh Gretsyd (meaning "fat purse") as patrons, and Teinfrith as "churchwright", probably meaning someone who worked on the carpentry and roofing. Endowments from Edward supported a community that increased from a dozen monks during Dunstan 's time, to as many as 80. The building

14080-535: The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition was an essential platform, reviewed at huge length in the press, which often alternated ridicule and extravagant praise in discussing works. The ultimate, and very rare, accolade was when a rail had to be put in front of a painting to protect it from the eager crowd; up to 1874 this had only happened to Wilkie's Chelsea Pensioners , Frith's The Derby Day and Salon d'Or, Homburg and Luke Filde's The Casual Ward (see below). A great number of artists laboured year after year in

14300-463: The Soviet Union formed in 1941, leading the Allies against the Axis powers . There were eventual hard-fought victories in the Battle of the Atlantic , the North Africa campaign and the Italian campaign . British forces played important roles in the Normandy landings of 1944 and the liberation of Europe . The British Army led the Burma campaign against Japan, and the British Pacific Fleet fought Japan at sea. British scientists contributed to

14520-575: The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan and the resurgence of Celtic motifs, now blended with Germanic interlace and Mediterranean elements, in Christian Insular art . This had a brief but spectacular flowering in all the countries that now form the United Kingdom in the 7th and 8th centuries, in works such as the Book of Kells and Book of Lindisfarne . The Insular style was influential across Northern Europe, and especially so in later Anglo-Saxon art , although this received new Continental influences. The English contribution to Romanesque art and Gothic art

14740-449: The Western Front . The high fatalities of trench warfare caused the loss of much of a generation of men, with lasting social effects in the nation and a great disruption in the social order. Britain had suffered 2.5 million casualties and finished the war with a huge national debt. The consequences of the war persuaded the government to expand the right to vote in national and local elections to all adult men and most adult women with

14960-412: The ambulatory , is a chantry chapel built by mason John Thirske and decorated with many sculpted figures (including Henry V riding a horse and being crowned in the abbey). At the western end, the shrine is separated from the main church by a stone reredos which makes it a semi-private space. The reredos depicts episodes from Edward's life, including his birth and the building of the abbey. The shrine

15180-510: The beat poets of the 1950s and the counterculture of the 1960s . Thomas Lawrence was already a leading portraitist by the start of the 20th century, and able to give a Romantic dash to his portraits of high society, and the leaders of Europe gathered at the Congress of Vienna after the Napoleonic Wars . Henry Raeburn was the most significant portraitist since the Union to remain based in Edinburgh throughout his career, an indication of increasing Scottish prosperity. But David Wilkie took

15400-408: The coastline paradox . It is connected to continental Europe by the Channel Tunnel , which at 31 miles (50 km) (24 miles (38 km) underwater) is the longest underwater tunnel in the world. The UK contains four terrestrial ecoregions: Celtic broadleaf forests , English Lowlands beech forests , North Atlantic moist mixed forests , and Caledonian conifer forests . The area of woodland in

15620-436: The largest protest in British history in opposition to the government led by Tony Blair . The Great Recession severely affected the UK economy. The Cameron–Clegg coalition government of 2010 introduced austerity measures intended to tackle the substantial public deficits. Studies have suggested that policy led to significant social disruption and suffering. A referendum on Scottish independence in 2014 resulted in

15840-411: The refectory , and the east to the chapter house and dormitory. In the southwest corner of the cloisters is a cellarium formerly used by the monks to store food and wine; in modern times, it is the abbey café. The north cloister and northern end of the east cloister, closest to the church, are the oldest; they date to c.  1250 , whereas the rest are from 1352 to 1366. The abbey also contains

16060-482: The transepts were designed to be unusually long and the choir was placed east (rather than west) of the crossing; this is also seen in Rheims Cathedral . The 13th-century interior would have been painted in bright colours and gilded, although the piers would have been left unpainted. Although the nave was built over the course of centuries from the east to the west end, generations of builders stuck to

16280-610: The "South Kensington Schools", now the Royal College of Art , which gradually replaced the Royal Academy School as the leading British art school, though around the start of the 20th century the Slade School of Fine Art produced many of the forward-looking artists. United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland , commonly known as the United Kingdom ( UK ) or Britain ,

16500-533: The "classical age" of English painting — was dominated by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), George Stubbs (1724–1806), Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) and Joseph Wright of Derby (1734–1797). At the time Reynolds was considered the dominant figure, Gainsborough was very highly reputed, but Stubbs was seen as a mere painter of animals and viewed as far a less significant figure than many other painters that are today little-known or forgotten. The period saw continued rising prosperity for Britain and British artists: "By

16720-619: The 16th century and established the Church of England . Moreover, it defined a national identity for England and slowly, but profoundly, changed people's religious beliefs. Wales was fully incorporated into the Kingdom of England , and Ireland was constituted as a kingdom in personal union with the English crown. In what was to become Northern Ireland, the lands of the independent Catholic Gaelic nobility were confiscated and given to Protestant settlers from England and Scotland. In 1603,

16940-401: The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, is a key military base . A referendum in 2002 on shared sovereignty with Spain was rejected by 98.97% of voters in the territory. Around the end of the 20th century, there were major changes to the governance of the UK with the establishment of devolved administrations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The statutory incorporation followed acceptance of

17160-437: The 1780s English painters were among the wealthiest men in the country, their names familiar to newspaper readers, their quarrels and cabals the talk of the town, their subjects known to everyone from the displays in the print-shop windows", according to Gerald Reitlinger . Reynolds returned from a long visit to Italy in 1753, and very quickly established a reputation as the most fashionable London portraitist, and before long as

17380-460: The 17th century, the architect Christopher Wren was appointed the abbey's first Surveyor of the Fabric . He began a project to restore the exterior of the church, which was continued by his successor, William Dickinson . After over two hundred years, the abbey's two western towers were built in the 1740s in a Gothic– Baroque style by Nicholas Hawksmoor and John James . On 11 November 1760,

17600-464: The 1820s, producing intense and lyrical pastoral idylls in conditions of some poverty. They went on to more conventional artistic careers and Palmer's early work was entirely forgotten until the early 20th century. Blake and Palmer became a significant influence on modernist artists of the 20th century seen (among others) in the painting of British artists such as Dora Carrington , Paul Nash and Graham Sutherland . Blake also had an enormous influence on

17820-521: The 1970s, the Conservative government of the 1980s led by Margaret Thatcher initiated a radical policy of monetarism , deregulation, particularly of the financial sector (for example, the Big Bang in 1986) and labour markets, the sale of state-owned companies (privatisation), and the withdrawal of subsidies to others. In 1982, Argentina invaded the British territories of South Georgia and

18040-531: The 19th century under the architect George Gilbert Scott , who rebuilt sections of the chapter house and north porches, and designed a new altar and reredos for the crossing. His successor, J. L. Pearson , finished the work on the north porches and also reconstructed the northern rose window. The abbey saw "Prayers For Prisoners" suffragette protests in 1913 and 1914. Protesters attended services and interrupted proceedings by chanting "God Save Mrs Pankhurst " and praying for suffragette prisoners. In one protest,

18260-646: The 5th century) united with the Picts to create the Kingdom of Scotland in the 9th century. In 1066, the Normans invaded England from northern France. After conquering England , they seized large parts of Wales , conquered much of Ireland and were invited to settle in Scotland, bringing to each country feudalism on the Northern French model and Norman-French culture. The Anglo-Norman ruling class greatly influenced, but eventually assimilated with,

18480-520: The British Isles rather late, no earlier than about 400 BC, and developed a particular "Insular Celtic" style seen in objects such as the Battersea Shield , and a number of bronze mirror-backs decorated with intricate patterns of curves, spirals and trumpet-shapes. Only in the British Isles can Celtic decorative style be seen to have survived throughout the Roman period , as shown in objects like

18700-700: The Brittonic area mainly to what was to become Wales , Cornwall and, until the latter stages of the Anglo-Saxon settlement, the Hen Ogledd (northern England and parts of southern Scotland). Most of the region settled by the Anglo-Saxons became unified as the Kingdom of England in the 10th century. Meanwhile, Gaelic speakers in north-west Britain (with connections to the north-east of Ireland and traditionally supposed to have migrated from there in

18920-546: The Catholic Mary I , but they were again ejected under Elizabeth I in 1559. In 1560, Elizabeth re-established Westminster as a " royal peculiar " – a church of the Church of England responsible directly to the sovereign, rather than to a diocesan bishop – and made it the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter, a non-cathedral church with an attached chapter of canons, headed by a dean. From that date onwards,

19140-539: The Confessor , who is buried inside. Construction of the present church began in 1245 on the orders of Henry III . The monastery was dissolved in 1559, and the church was made a royal peculiar – a Church of England church, accountable directly to the sovereign – by Elizabeth I . The abbey, the Palace of Westminster and St Margaret's Church became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987 because of their historic and symbolic significance. The church's Gothic architecture

19360-456: The Dean and Chapter announced that, "after a considerable amount of preliminary and exploratory work", efforts toward the construction of a corona would not be continued. The Cosmati pavement underwent a major cleaning and restoration programme for two years, beginning in 2008. On 17   September 2010, Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope to set foot in the abbey when he participated in

19580-681: The Dutch Sir Peter Lely , whose style he had adopted for his enormous and formulaic output, of greatly varying quality, which was itself repeated by an army of lesser painters. His counterpart in Edinburgh, Sir John Baptist Medina , born in Brussels to Spanish parents, had died just before the Union took place, and was one of the last batch of Scottish knights to be created. Medina had first worked in London, but in mid-career moved to

19800-466: The English Gothic style favours large and elaborate towers, while Westminster Abbey did not have any towers until the 18th century. It is also more similar to French churches than English ones in terms of its ratio of height to width: Westminster Abbey has the highest nave of any Gothic church in England, and the nave is much narrower than any medieval English church of a similar height. Instead of

20020-608: The Glen (1851), a portrait of a Highland stag, were among the most popular. Like Millais' Bubbles (1886) it was used on packaging and advertisements for decades, for brands of whisky and soap respectively. During the late Victorian era in Britain the academic paintings, some enormously large, of Lord Leighton and the Dutch-born Lawrence Alma-Tadema were enormously popular, both often featuring lightly clad beauties in exotic or classical settings, while

20240-830: The Manhattan Project whose task was to build an atomic weapon. Once built, it was decided, with British consent, to use the weapon against Japan. The UK was one of the Big Three powers (along with the US and the Soviet Union) who met to plan the post-war world ; it drafted the Declaration by United Nations with the United States and became one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council . It worked closely with

20460-542: The Name of Great Britain". The term "United Kingdom" has occasionally been used as a description for the former Kingdom of Great Britain , although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was simply "Great Britain". The Acts of Union 1800 formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . Following the partition of Ireland and the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as

20680-631: The Normans conquered England . With the end of the Wars of the Roses the English state stabilised and began to grow in power, resulting by the 16th century in the annexation of Wales , the domination of Scotland , and the establishment of the British Empire . Over the course of the 17th century, the role of the British monarchy was reduced, particularly as a result of the English Civil War . In 1707,

20900-511: The Roses , Elizabeth Woodville , the wife of Edward IV , took sanctuary at Westminster Abbey while her husband was deposed, and gave birth to Edward V in the abbot's house. In 1495, building work finally reached the end of the nave, finishing with the west window. Under Henry VII , the 13th-century Lady chapel was demolished and rebuilt in a Perpendicular Gothic style ; it is known as the Henry VII Chapel . Work began in 1503 and

21120-660: The Scottish electorate voting by 55.3 to 44.7% to remain part of the United Kingdom. In 2016, 51.9 per cent of voters in the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union . The UK left the EU in 2020. On 1 May 2021, the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement came into force. The COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on the UK's economy , caused major disruptions to education and had far-reaching impacts on society and politics in 2020 and 2021. The United Kingdom

21340-556: The Second World War damaged Britain's economic power and a global wave of decolonisation led to the independence of most British colonies. The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy . The UK has three distinct jurisdictions: England and Wales , Scotland , and Northern Ireland . Since 1999, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own governments and parliaments which control various devolved matters. A developed country ,

21560-501: The UK has the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal gross domestic product (GDP). It is a nuclear state , and is ranked fifth globally in military expenditure . The UK has been a permanent member of the UN Security Council since its first session in 1946. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations , Council of Europe , G7 , OECD , NATO , Five Eyes , AUKUS and CPTPP . British influence can be observed in

21780-484: The UK in 2023 is estimated to be 3.25 million hectares, which represents 13% of the total land area in the UK. Most of the United Kingdom has a temperate climate, with generally cool temperatures and plentiful rainfall all year round. The temperature varies with the seasons seldom dropping below 0  °C (32  °F ) or rising above 30 °C (86 °F). Some parts, away from the coast, of upland England, Wales, Northern Ireland and most of Scotland, experience

22000-961: The UK into lowland and upland areas. Lowland areas include Cornwall , the New Forest , the South Downs and the Norfolk Broads . Upland areas include the Lake District , the Pennines , the Yorkshire Dales , Exmoor , and Dartmoor . The main rivers and estuaries are the Thames , Severn , and the Humber . England's highest mountain is Scafell Pike , at 978 metres (3,209 ft) in the Lake District; its largest island

22220-527: The Union, but a tradition of marine art had been established by the father and son both called Willem van de Velde, who had been the leading Dutch maritime painters until they moved to London in 1673, in the middle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War . The so-called Acts of Union 1707 came in the middle of the long period of domination in London of Sir Godfrey Kneller , a German portraitist who had eventually succeeded as principal court painter

22440-402: The United Kingdom and that elsewhere "British government" is used at least as frequently as "United Kingdom government". The UK Permanent Committee on Geographical Names recognises "United Kingdom", "UK" and "U.K." as shortened and abbreviated geopolitical terms for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in its toponymic guidelines; it does not list "Britain" but notes that "it

22660-411: The United Kingdom is 1339.7 hours, which is just under 30% of the maximum possible. The hours of sunshine vary from 1200 to about 1580 hours per year, and since 1996 the UK has been and still is receiving above the 1981 to 2010 average hours of sunshine. Climate change has a serious impact on the country. A third of food price rise in 2023 is attributed to climate change. As of 2022, the United Kingdom

22880-436: The United Kingdom use several different terms to describe their national identity and may identify themselves as being British , English , Scottish , Welsh , Northern Irish , or Irish ; or as having a combination of different national identities. Settlement by Cro-Magnons of what was to become the United Kingdom occurred in waves beginning by about 30,000 years ago. The island has been continuously inhabited only since

23100-685: The United Kingdom. The 1928 Equal Franchise Act gave women electoral equality with men in national elections. Strikes in the mid-1920s culminated in the General Strike of 1926 . Britain had still not recovered from the effects of the First World War when the Great Depression (1929–1932) led to considerable unemployment and hardship in the old industrial areas, as well as political and social unrest with rising membership in communist and socialist parties. A coalition government

23320-640: The United States to establish the IMF , World Bank and NATO . The war left the UK severely weakened and financially dependent on the Marshall Plan , but it was spared the total war that devastated eastern Europe. In the immediate post-war years, the Labour government under Clement Attlee initiated a radical programme of reforms, which significantly impacted British society in the following decades . Major industries and public utilities were nationalised ,

23540-526: The Unknown Warrior . Due to the fame of the figures buried there, artist William Morris described the abbey as a "National Valhalla ". Historians agree that there was a monastery dedicated to Saint Peter on the site prior to the 11th century, though its exact origin is somewhat obscure. One legend claims that it was founded by the Saxon king Sæberht of Essex , and another claims that its founder

23760-601: The abbey architect and Surveyor of the Fabric, Ptolemy Dean . In 2020, a 13th-century sacristy was uncovered in the grounds of the abbey as part of an archaeological excavation. The sacristy was used by the monks of the abbey to store objects used in Mass , such as vestments and chalices . Also on the site were hundreds of buried bodies, mostly of abbey monks. On 10 March 2021, a vaccination centre opened in Poets' Corner to administer doses of COVID-19 vaccines . The building

23980-516: The abbey at the outbreak of war, and were replaced by priests loyal to Parliament. The abbey itself suffered damage during the war; altars, stained glass, the organ, and the Crown Jewels were damaged or destroyed. Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell was given an elaborate funeral there in 1658, only for a body thought to be Cromwell's to be disinterred in January 1661 and posthumously hanged from

24200-494: The abbey is the Weston Tower, finished in 2018 and designed by Ptolemy Dean . It sits between the chapter house and the Henry VII Chapel, and contains a lift shaft and spiral staircase to allow public access to the triforium, which contains the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries. The tower has a star-shaped floorplan and leaded windows with an elaborate crown rooftop. The lift shaft inside is faced with 16 kinds of stone from

24420-552: The abbey owned estates across southeast England, including in Middlesex , Hertfordshire , Essex , Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire . The abbot was also the lord of the manor in Westminster, as a town of two to three thousand people grew around the abbey. As a consumer and employer on a grand scale, the abbey helped fuel the town's economy, and relations with the town remained unusually cordial, but no enfranchising charter

24640-566: The abbey was officially granted exemption from the Bishop of London 's jurisdiction, making it answerable only to the head of the Church itself. By this time, the abbey owned a large swath of land around it, from modern-day Oxford Street to the Thames, plus entire parishes in the City of London , such as St Alban, Wood Street and St Magnus the Martyr , as well as several wharfs. Outside London,

24860-470: The abbey's history, including Purbeck marble, Reigate stone, and Portland stone . The project took five years and cost £22.9   million. The galleries were designed by McInnes Usher McKnight. The church's interior has Purbeck marble piers and shafting. The roof vaulting is quadripartite, with ridge ribs and bosses and, at 102 feet (31 m), it is one of Britain's highest church vaults. To accommodate as many guests as possible during coronations,

25080-467: The abbey's own fire-watchers were able to stop the fire spreading to the whole of the church, the deanery and three residences of abbey clergy and staff were badly damaged, and the lantern tower above the crossing collapsed, leaving the abbey open to the sky. The cost of the damage was estimated at £135,000. Some damage can still be seen in the RAF Chapel , where a small hole in the wall was created by

25300-439: The abbey. The golden feretory that housed the coffin of Edward the Confessor was melted down, and monks hid his bones to save them from destruction. The monastery was dissolved and the building became the cathedral for the newly created Diocese of Westminster . The abbot, William Benson, became dean of the cathedral, while the prior and five of the monks were among the twelve newly created canons . The Westminster diocese

25520-463: The abbot at Westminster Abbey. In 1303, the small crypt underneath the chapter house was broken into and a great deal of the king's treasure was stolen. It was thought that the thieves must have been helped by the abbey monks, fifty of whom were subsequently imprisoned in the Tower of London . From 1376, Abbot Nicholas Litlyngton and Richard II donated large sums to finish the church. The remainder of

25740-573: The acquisition and settlement of overseas colonies , particularly in North America and the Caribbean. Though previous attempts at uniting the two kingdoms within Great Britain in 1606, 1667, and 1689 had proved unsuccessful, the attempt initiated in 1705 led to the Treaty of Union of 1706 being agreed and ratified by both parliaments. On 1 May 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain was formed,

25960-558: The age of 40 as a designer of largely floral patterns in Rococo styles. Unlike in France and Germany, the English adoption of the Rococo style was patchy rather than whole-hearted, and there was resistance to it on nationalist grounds, led by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and William Kent , who promoted styles in interior design and furniture to match the Palladianism of the architecture they produced together, also beginning

26180-513: The allegorical works of G. F. Watts matched the Victorian sense of high purpose. The classical ladies of Edward Poynter and Albert Moore wore more clothes and met with rather less success. William Powell Frith painted highly detailed scenes of social life, typically including all classes of society, that include comic and moral elements and have an acknowledged debt to Hogarth, though tellingly different from his work. For all such artists

26400-405: The authoritative art critic John Ruskin , himself a fine amateur artist. For all their technical innovation, they were both traditional and Victorian in their adherence to the history painting as the highest form of art , and their subject matter was thoroughly in tune with Victorian taste, and indeed "everything that the publishers of steel engravings welcomed", enabling them to merge easily into

26620-453: The beginning and end of his career, and anticipated Joshua Reynolds in bringing a more relaxed version of "Grand Manner" to British portraiture, combined with very sensitive handling in his best work, which is generally agreed to have been of female sitters. His main London rival in the mid-century, until Reynolds made his reputation, was Reynold's master, the stodgy Thomas Hudson . John Wootton , active from about 1714 to his death in 1765,

26840-519: The building was simply a church, though it was still called an abbey. Elizabeth also re-founded Westminster School , providing for 40 students (the King's (or Queen's) Scholars ) and their schoolmasters. The King's Scholars have the duty of shouting Vivat Rex or Vivat Regina ("Long live the King/Queen") during the coronation of a new monarch. In the modern day, the dean of Westminster Abbey remains

27060-498: The central one featuring an elaborately-carved tympanum , leading it to acquire the nickname " Solomon 's porch" as a reference to the legendary temple in Jerusalem . The abbey retains its 13th- and 14th-century cloisters , which would have been one of the busiest parts of the church when it was part of a monastery. The west cloister was used for the teaching of novice monks, the north for private study. The south cloister led to

27280-619: The chair of the school governors. In the early 17th century, the abbey hosted two of the six companies of churchmen who produced the King James Version of the Bible. They used the Jerusalem Chamber in the abbey for their meetings. The First Company was headed by the dean of the abbey, Lancelot Andrewes . In 1642, the English Civil War broke out between Charles I and his own parliament . The Dean and Chapter fled

27500-401: The church had existed prior to 1600). In June 2009, the first major building work in 250 years was proposed. A corona – a crown-like architectural feature – was suggested to be built around the lantern over the central crossing, replacing an existing pyramidal structure dating from the 1950s. This was part of a wider £23-million development of the abbey completed in 2013. On 4 August 2010,

27720-572: The church to steal the stone and return it to Scotland. In preparation for bombing raids during World War II , the Coronation Chair and many of the abbey's records were moved out of the city, and the Stone of Scone was buried. In 1941, on the night of 10   May and the early morning of 11   May, the Westminster Abbey precincts and roof were hit by incendiary bombs. Although the Auxiliary Fire Service and

27940-549: The coats of arms of several monarchs and the abbey's patrons and abbots. The exterior includes flying buttresses (added in the 14th century) and a leaded roof designed by Scott. The interior walls of the chapter house are decorated with 14th- and 15th-century paintings of the Apocalypse , the Last Judgement , and birds and animals. The chapter house also has an original, mid-13th-century tiled floor. A wooden door in

28160-657: The common stratagem of turning them into history paintings by adding a few small figures, which doubled their price to about £80. He continued to paint scenes set in Italy, as well as England and Wales, and his death in 1782 came just as large numbers of artists began to travel to Wales, and later the Lake District and Scotland in search of mountainous views, both for oil paintings and watercolours which were now starting their long period of popularity in Britain, both with professionals and amateurs. Paul Sandby , Francis Towne , John Warwick Smith , and John Robert Cozens were among

28380-736: The decades-long process of European integration , the UK was a founding member of the Western European Union , established with the London and Paris Conferences in 1954. In 1960 the UK was one of the seven founding members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), but in 1973 it left to join the European Communities (EC). In a 1975 referendum 67% voted to stay in it. When the EC became

28600-438: The details of the narrative action deliberately ambiguous, inviting the viewer to speculate on it using the evidence in front of them, but not supplying a final answer (artists learned to smile enigmatically when asked). This sometimes provoked discussion on sensitive social issues, typically involving women, that might have been hard to raise directly. They were enormously popular; newspapers ran competitions for readers to supply

28820-406: The earliest of an English king, on display near the west door. Building work was not fully complete for many years. Henry V , disappointed with the abbey's unfinished state, gave extra funds towards the rebuilding. In his will, he left instructions for a chantry chapel to be built over his tomb; the chapel can be seen from ground level. Between 1470 and 1471, because of fallout from the Wars of

29040-629: The easiest to sell, and Reynolds made several attempts at it, as unsuccessful as Hogarth's. The unheroic nature of modern dress was seen as a major obstacle in the depiction of contemporary scenes, and the Scottish gentleman-artist and art dealer Gavin Hamilton preferred classical scenes as well as painting some based on his Eastern travels, where his European figures by-passed the problem by wearing Arab dress. He spent most of his adult life based in Rome and had at least as much influence on Neo-Classicism in Europe as in Britain. The Irishman James Barry

29260-406: The eastern aisle of the north transept are named after (from south to north) St John the Evangelist, St Michael, and St Andrew. The chapels of St Nicholas, St Edmund, and St Benedict are in the south ambulatory. The footprint of the south transept is smaller than the northern one because the 13th-century builders butted against the pre-existing 11th-century cloisters . To make the transepts match,

29480-403: The eastern end of the nave is a large screen separating the nave from the choir, made of 13th-century stone, reworked by Edward Blore in 1834, and with paintwork and gilding by Bower in the 1960s. Behind the main altar is the shrine and tomb of Edward the Confessor . Saints' shrines were once common in English medieval churches, but most were destroyed during the English Reformation and Edward

29700-424: The eastern parts are the driest. Atlantic currents, warmed by the Gulf Stream , bring mild winters, especially in the west where winters are wet and even more so over high ground. Summers are warmest in the southeast of England and coolest in the north. Heavy snowfall can occur in winter and early spring on high ground, and occasionally settles to great depth away from the hills. The average total annual sunshine in

29920-422: The effects of light, and were a profound influence on the Impressionists and other later movements. Constable normally painted pure landscapes with at most a few genre figures, in a style based on Northern European traditions, but, like Turner, his "six-footers" were intended to make as striking an impact as any history painting. They were carefully prepared using studies and full-size oil sketches , whereas Turner

30140-433: The effects of the classical-style reliefs he also produced. The German-Swiss Henry Fuseli also produced work in a linear graphic style, but his narrative scenes, often from English literature, were intensely Romantic and highly dramatic. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) achieved considerable influence after its foundation in 1848 with paintings that concentrated on religious, literary, and genre subjects executed in

30360-609: The end of the period this generation had been succeeded by younger portraitists including John Hoppner , Sir William Beechey and the young Gilbert Stuart , who only realized his mature style after he returned to America. The Welsh painter Richard Wilson returned to London from seven years in Italy in 1757, and over the next two decades developed a "sublime" landscape style adapting the Franco-Italian tradition of Claude and Gaspard Dughet to British subjects. Though much admired, like those of Gainsborough his landscapes were hard to sell, and he sometimes resorted, as Reynolds complained, to

30580-448: The entire eastern end, the transepts , and the easternmost bay of the nave . The Lady chapel , built from around 1220 at the extreme eastern end, was incorporated into the chevet of the new building. Part of the new building included a rich shrine and chapel to Edward the Confessor, of which the base only still stands. The golden shrine with its jewelled figures no longer exists. 4,000 marks (about £5,800) for this work came from

30800-450: The equipment for this, and used it to start the St. Martin's Lane Academy in 1735, which was the most enduring, eventually being absorbed by the Royal Academy in 1768. Hogarth also helped solve the problem of a lack of exhibition venues in London, arranging for shows at the Foundling Hospital from 1746. The Scottish portraitist Allan Ramsay worked in Edinburgh before moving to London by 1739. He made visits of three years to Italy at

31020-678: The estate of David of Oxford, the husband of Licoricia of Winchester , and a further £2,500 came from a forced contribution from Licoricia herself, by far the biggest single donation at that time. Around 1253, Henry of Reynes was replaced by John of Gloucester, who was replaced by Robert of Beverley around 1260. During the summer, there were up to 400 workers on the site at a time, including stonecutters, marblers, stone-layers, carpenters, painters and their assistants, marble polishers, smiths, glaziers, plumbers, and general labourers. From 1257, Henry III held assemblies of local representatives in Westminster Abbey's chapter house ; these assemblies were

31240-419: The fall of the Paris Commune , divided his time between scenes of high society social events and a huge series of Biblical illustrations, made in watercolour for reproductive publication. Frederick Goodall specialized in scenes of Ancient Egypt. Larger paintings concerned with the social conditions of the poor tended to concentrate on rural scenes, so that the misery of the human figures was at least offset by

31460-430: The fashionable form of the conversation piece , recently introduced from France by Philippe Mercier , which was to remain a favourite in Britain, taken up by artists such as Francis Hayman , though usually abandoned once an artist could get good single figure commissions. There was a recognition that, even more than the rest of Europe given the lack of British artists, the training of artists needed to be extended beyond

31680-444: The field to himself, although by the end of his life commissions for grand schemes had dried up from changes in taste. From 1714 the new Hanoverian dynasty conducted a far less ostentatious court, and largely withdrew from patronage of the arts, other than the necessary portraits. Fortunately, the booming British economy was able to supply aristocratic and mercantile wealth to replace the court, above all in London. William Hogarth

31900-404: The first industrialised country and was the world's foremost power for the majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly during the " Pax Britannica " between 1815 and 1914. At its height in the 1920s, the British Empire encompassed almost a quarter of the world's landmass and population, and was the largest empire in history . However, its involvement in the First World War and

32120-408: The first type, both dealing with "fallen women", a perennial Victorian concern. As Peter Conrad points out, these were paintings designed to be read like novels, whose meaning emerged after the viewer had done the work of deciphering it. Other "anecdotal" scenes were lighter in mood, tending towards being captionless Punch cartoons. Towards the end of the 19th century the problem picture left

32340-411: The first year, Britain and its Empire continued the war against Germany. Churchill engaged industry, scientists and engineers to support the government and the military in the prosecution of the war effort. In 1940, the Royal Air Force defeated the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain . Urban areas suffered heavy bombing during the Blitz . The Grand Alliance of Britain, the United States and

32560-410: The formal control it exerted over its own colonies, British dominance of much of world trade meant that it effectively controlled the economies of regions such as East Asia and Latin America . Throughout the Victorian era , political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies. Beginning with the Great Reform Act in 1832, Parliament gradually widened the voting franchise , with

32780-449: The funeral of George II was held at the abbey, and the king was interred next to his late wife, Caroline of Ansbach . He left instructions for the sides of his and his wife's coffins to be removed so that their remains could mingle. He was the last monarch to be buried in the abbey. Around the same time, the tomb of Richard   II developed a hole through which visitors could put their hands. Several of his bones went missing, including

33000-466: The global hegemon and adopted the role of global policeman. From 1853 to 1856, Britain took part in the Crimean War , allied with the Ottoman Empire against Tsarist Russia , participating in the naval battles of the Baltic Sea known as the Åland War in the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland , among others. Following the Indian Rebellion in 1857 , the British government led by Lord Palmerston assumed direct rule over India . Alongside

33220-423: The hope of a hit there, often working in manners to which their talent was not really suited, a trope exemplified by the suicide in 1846 of Benjamin Haydon , a friend of Keats and Dickens and a better writer than painter, leaving his blood splashed over his unfinished King Alfred and the First British Jury . British history was a very common subject, with the Middle Ages, Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots and

33440-429: The influential British tradition of the landscape garden , according to Nikolaus Pevsner "the most influential of all English innovations in art". The French-born engraver Hubert-François Gravelot , in London from 1732 to 1745, was a key figure in importing Rococo taste in book illustrations and ornament prints for craftsmen to follow. In the modern popular mind, English art from about 1750–1790 — today referred to as

33660-403: The kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland were united in a personal union when James VI, King of Scots , inherited the crowns of England and Ireland and moved his court from Edinburgh to London; each country nevertheless remained a separate political entity and retained its separate political, legal, and religious institutions. In the mid-17th century, all three kingdoms were involved in

33880-411: The largest in Western Europe , with a population of 14.9 million. The cities of Edinburgh , Cardiff , and Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, respectively. The lands of the UK have been inhabited continuously since the Neolithic . In AD 43 the Roman conquest of Britain began; the Roman departure was followed by Anglo-Saxon settlement . In 1066,

34100-408: The last retreat of the ice around 11,500 years ago. By the end of the region's prehistoric period , the population is thought to have belonged largely to a culture termed Insular Celtic , comprising Brittonic Britain and Gaelic Ireland . The Roman conquest , beginning in 43 AD, and the 400-year rule of southern Britain , was followed by an invasion by Germanic Anglo-Saxon settlers, reducing

34320-421: The lasting fame they have mainly as the authors of pattern books used by other makers in Britain and abroad. In fact it is far from clear if the last two named ever ran actual workshops, though Chippendale certainly was successful in this and in what we now call interior design; unlike France Britain had abandoned its guild system, and Chippendale was able to employ specialists in all the crafts needed to complete

34540-402: The late 1770s he returned to a more intimate style, perhaps influenced by the success of Thomas Gainsborough , who only settled in London in 1773, after working in Ipswich and then Bath . While Reynolds' practice of aristocratic portraits seem exactly matched to his talents, Gainsborough, if not forced to follow the market for his work, might well have developed as a pure landscape painter, or

34760-407: The later opening of museums brought art to a wider public, especially in London. In the 19th century publicly displayed religious art once again became popular after a virtual absence since the Reformation , and, as in other countries, movements such as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Glasgow School contended with established Academic art . The British contribution to early Modernist art

34980-415: The later side; the shields on the aisle walls are carved on the earlier side, and painted on the later side. Above the crossing, in the centre of the church, is a roof lantern which was destroyed by a bomb in 1941 and restored by architect Stephen Dykes Bower in 1958. In the choir aisles, shields of donors to the 13th- and 14th-century rebuilding are carved and painted in the spandrels of the arcade . At

35200-423: The leading specialist painters and the clergyman and amateur artist William Gilpin was an important writer who stimulated the popularity of amateur painting of the picturesque , while the works of Alexander Cozens recommended forming random ink blots into landscape compositions—even Constable tried this technique. History painting in the grand manner continued to be the most prestigious form of art, though not

35420-409: The legal and political systems of many of its former colonies , and British culture remains globally influential, particularly in language , literature , music and sport . English is the world's most widely spoken language and the third-most spoken native language . The Acts of Union 1707 declared that the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by

35640-401: The less competitive environment of Edinburgh, where he dominated portraiture of the Scottish elite. However, after the Union the movement was to be all in the other direction, and Scottish aristocrats resigned themselves to paying more to have their portraits painted in London, even if by Scottish painters such as Medina's pupil William Aikman , who moved down in 1723, or Allan Ramsay . There

35860-460: The limitations of contemporary English history painting. Joseph Wright of Derby was mainly a portrait painter who also was one of the first artists to depict the Industrial Revolution , as well as developing a cross between the conversation piece and history painting in works like An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768) and A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery (c. 1766), which like many of his works are lit only by candlelight, giving

36080-471: The local cultures. Subsequent medieval English kings completed the conquest of Wales and tried unsuccessfully to annex Scotland . Asserting its independence in the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath , Scotland maintained its independence thereafter, albeit in near-constant conflict with England . In 1215 the Magna Carta was the first document to state that no government was above the law, that citizens have rights protecting them and that they were entitled to

36300-416: The location of the coronations of 40 English and British monarchs and a burial site for 18 English, Scottish, and British monarchs. At least 16 royal weddings have taken place at the abbey since 1100. Although the origins of the church are obscure, an abbey housing Benedictine monks was on the site by the mid-10th century. The church got its first large building from the 1040s, commissioned by King Edward

36520-407: The main structure was completed by 1509, although decorative work continued for several years afterwards. Henry's original reason for building such a grand chapel was to have a place suitable for the burial of another saint alongside the Confessor, as he planned on having Henry VI canonised. The Pope asked Henry VII for a large sum of money to proclaim Henry VI a saint; Henry VII was unwilling to pay

36740-488: The mainstream in their later careers. While the Pre-Raphaelites had a turbulent and divided reception, the most popular and expensive painters of the period included Edwin Landseer , who specialized in sentimental animal subjects, which were favourites of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert . In the later part of the century artists could earn large sums from selling the reproduction rights of their paintings to print publishers, and works of Landseer, especially his Monarch of

36960-436: The major part of the British Isles archipelago and includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern one-sixth of the island of Ireland and some smaller surrounding islands. It lies between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea with the southeast coast coming within 22 miles (35 km) of the coast of northern France, from which it is separated by the English Channel . The Royal Greenwich Observatory in London

37180-459: The meaning of the painting. Many artists participated in the revival of original artistic printmaking usually known as the etching revival , although prints in many other techniques were also made. This began in the 1850s and continued until the fallout from the 1929 Wall Street Crash brought about a collapse in the very high prices that the most fashionable artists had been achieving. British Orientalism , though not as common as in France at

37400-619: The mid-1920s, most of the British population could listen to BBC radio programmes. Experimental television broadcasts began in 1929 and the first scheduled BBC Television Service commenced in 1936. The rise of Irish nationalism , and disputes within Ireland over the terms of Irish Home Rule , led eventually to the partition of the island in 1921. A period of conflict in what is now Northern Ireland occurred from June 1920 until June 1922. The Irish Free State became independent, initially with Dominion status in 1922, and unambiguously independent in 1931 . Northern Ireland remained part of

37620-403: The most distinguished and influential of a large number of artists who spent extended periods in Britain, generally eclipsing local talents like Nicolas Hilliard , the painter of portrait miniatures , Robert Peake the elder , William Larkin , William Dobson , and John Michael Wright , a Scot who mostly worked in London. Landscape painting was as yet little developed in Britain at the time of

37840-441: The most notable Irish portraitist of the period, Charles Jervas who enjoyed social and financial success in London despite his clear limitations as an artist. An exception to the dominance of the " lower genres " of painting was Sir James Thornhill (1675/76–1734) who was the first and last significant English painter of huge Baroque allegorical decorative schemes, and the first native painter to be knighted. His best-known work

38060-410: The new Palace of Westminster . Lady Jane Grey was, like Mary Queen of Scots, a female whose sufferings attracted many painters, though none quite matched The Execution of Lady Jane Grey , one of many British historical subjects by the Frenchman Paul Delaroche . Painters prided themselves on the increasing accuracy of their period settings in terms of costume and objects, studying the collections of

38280-520: The new Victoria and Albert Museum and books, and scorning the breezy approximations of earlier generations of artists. Victorian painting developed the Hogarthian social subject, packed with moralizing detail, and the tradition of illustrating scenes from literature, into a range of types of genre painting, many with only a few figures, others large and crowded scenes like Frith's best-known works. Holman Hunt's The Awakening Conscience (1853) and Augustus Egg 's set of Past and Present (1858) are of

38500-434: The north ambulatory are the Islip Chapel, the Nurses' Memorial Chapel (sometimes called the Nightingale Chapel), the Chapel of Our Lady of the Pew, the Chapel of St John the Baptist, and St Paul's Chapel. The Islip Chapel is named after Abbot John Islip , who commissioned it in the 16th century. The screen inside is decorated with a visual pun on his name: an eye and a boy falling from a tree (eye-slip). Additional chapels in

38720-407: The office until his death in 1792. His published Discourses , first delivered to the students, were regarded as the first major writing on art in English, and set out the aspiration for a style to match the classical grandeur of classical sculpture and High Renaissance painting. After the academy was established, Reynolds' portraits became more overly classicizing, and often more distant, until in

38940-436: The old nave was pulled down and rebuilding commenced, with his mason Henry Yevele closely following the original design even though it was now more than 100 years out of date. During the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, Richard prayed at Edward the Confessor's shrine for "divine aid when human counsel was altogether wanting" before meeting the rebels at Smithfield . In the modern day, the abbey holds Richard's full-length portrait,

39160-463: The only part of the island of Ireland within the United Kingdom, the name was changed in 1927 to the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". Although the United Kingdom is a sovereign country, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also widely referred to as countries . The UK Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom. Some statistical summaries, such as those for

39380-428: The original design and it has a unified style. Markers of the long gap in building between 1269 and 1376 are relatively minor, but can be seen at the fifth bay from the crossing. The spandrels above the arches are towards the earlier east end are decorated with diaper-work , and are plain towards the (later) west end. The lancet windows on the earlier side have a foiled circle, and have an unencircled quatrefoil on

39600-410: The period. From his arrival in London in 1720, the Flemish sculptor John Michael Rysbrack was the leader in his field until the arrival in 1730 of Louis-François Roubiliac who had a Rococo style which was highly effective in busts and small figures, though by the following decade he was also commissioned for larger works. He also produced models for the Chelsea porcelain factory founded in 1743,

39820-404: The political caricature , sold individually by print shops (often acting as publishers also), either hand-coloured or plain, was James Gillray . The emphasis on portrait-painting in British art was not entirely due to the vanity of the sitters. There was a large collector's market for portrait prints, mostly reproductions of paintings, which were often mounted in albums. From the mid-century there

40040-715: The provinces Lowestoft , Worcester , Royal Crown Derby , Liverpool , and Wedgwood , with Spode following in 1767. Most were started as small concerns, with some lasting only a few decades while others still survive today. By the end of the period British porcelain services were being commissioned by foreign royalty and the British manufacturers were especially adept at pursuing the rapidly expanding international middle-class market, developing bone china and transfer-printed wares as well as hand-painted true porcelain. The three leading furniture makers, Thomas Chippendale (1718–1779), Thomas Sheraton (1751–1806) and George Hepplewhite (1727?–1786) had varied styles and have achieved

40260-448: The remains of Edward the Confessor were moved to their present location at the shrine behind the main altar. After Henry's death and burial in the abbey in 1272, construction did not resume and Edward the Confessor's old Romanesque nave remained attached to the new building for over a century. In 1296, Edward I captured the Scottish coronation stone, the Stone of Scone . He had a Coronation Chair made to hold it, which he entrusted to

40480-442: The rest of Europe, royal absolutism would not prevail, and a professed Catholic could never accede to the throne. The British constitution would develop on the basis of constitutional monarchy and the parliamentary system . With the founding of the Royal Society in 1660, science was greatly encouraged. During this period, particularly in England, the development of naval power and the interest in voyages of discovery led to

40700-406: The result of the Acts of Union 1707 between the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland . In the 18th century, cabinet government developed under Robert Walpole , in practice the first prime minister (1721–1742). A series of Jacobite uprisings sought to remove the Protestant House of Hanover from the throne and restore the Catholic House of Stuart . The Jacobites were finally defeated at

40920-462: The same period, had many specialists, including John Frederick Lewis , who lived for nine years in Cairo , David Roberts , a Scot who made lithographs of his travels in the Middle East and Italy, the nonsense writer Edward Lear , a continual traveller who reached as far as Ceylon , and Richard Dadd . Holman Hunt also travelled to Palestine to obtain authentic settings for his Biblical pictures. The Frenchman James Tissot , who fled to London after

41140-427: The south transept overhangs the western cloister; this permitted a room above the cloisters which was used to store the abbey muniments . In the south transept is the chapel of St Faith , built c.  1250 as the vestry for the abbey's monks. On the east wall is a c.  1290  – c.  1310 painting of St Faith holding the grid-iron on which she was roasted to death. The octagonal chapter house

41360-431: The sum, and so instead he is buried in the centre of the chapel with his wife, Elizabeth of York , rather than a large raised shrine like the Confessor. A view of the abbey dated 1532 shows a lantern tower above the crossing , but this is not shown in any later depiction. It is unlikely that the loss of this feature was caused by any catastrophic event: structural failure seems more likely. Other sources maintain that

41580-452: The traditional road south, achieving great success with subjects of country life and hybrid genre and history scenes such as The Chelsea Pensioners reading the Waterloo Dispatch (1822). John Flaxman was the most thorough-going neo-classical English artist. Beginning as a sculptor, he became best known for his many spare "outline drawings" of classical scenes, often illustrating literature, which were reproduced as prints. These imitated

41800-436: The twelve NUTS 1 regions , refer to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as "regions". Northern Ireland is also referred to as a "province". With regard to Northern Ireland, the descriptive name used "can be controversial, with the choice often revealing one's political preferences". The term "Great Britain" conventionally refers to the island of Great Britain, or politically to England, Scotland and Wales in combination. It

42020-424: The various Dutch and Flemish artists who had previously set the prevailing landscape style in Britain, and through intermediary artists such as George Lambert , the first British painter to base a career on landscape subjects, was to greatly influence other British artists such as Gainsborough. Samuel Scott was the best of the native marine and townscape artists, though in the latter specialization he could not match

42240-401: The vestibule, made with a tree felled between 1032 and 1064, is one of Britain's oldest. It may have been the door to the 11th-century chapter house in Edward the Confessor's abbey, and was re-used as the door to the Pyx Chamber in the 13th century. It now leads to an office. The adjoining Pyx Chamber was the undercroft of the monks' dormitory. Dating to the late 11th century, it was used as

42460-418: The visiting Canaletto , who was in England from nine years from 1746, and whose Venetian views were a favourite souvenir of the Grand Tour . The antiquary and engraver George Vertue was a figure in the London art scene for most of the period, and his copious notebooks were adapted and published in the 1760s by Horace Walpole as Some Anecdotes of Painting in England , which remains a principal source for

42680-458: The workshop of established masters, and various attempts were made to set up academies , starting with Kneller in 1711, with the help of Pellegrini, in Great Queen Street. The academy was taken over by Thornhill in 1716, but seems to have become inactive by the time John Vanderbank and Louis Chéron set up their own academy in 1720. This did not last long, and in 1724/5 Thornhill tried again in his own house, with little success. Hogarth inherited

42900-469: Was a great growth in the expensive but more effective reproductions in mezzotint , of portraits and other paintings, with special demand from collectors for early proof states "before letter" (that is, before the inscriptions were added), which the printmakers obligingly printed off in growing numbers. This period marked one of the high points in British decorative arts. Around the mid-century many porcelain factories opened, including Bow in London, and in

43120-406: Was a great presence in the second quarter of the century, whose art was successful in achieving a particular English character, with vividly moralistic scenes of contemporary life, full of both satire and pathos, attuned to the tastes and prejudices of the Protestant middle-class, who bought the engraved versions of his paintings in huge numbers. Other subjects were only issued as prints, and Hogarth

43340-465: Was able to mostly avoid them, showing a rescue from drowning. Smaller scale subjects from literature were also popular, pioneered by Francis Hayman , one of the first to paint scenes from Shakespeare , and Joseph Highmore , with a series illustrating the novel Pamela . At the end of the period the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery was an ambitious project for paintings, and prints after them, illustrating "the Bard", as he had now become, while exposing

43560-425: Was active until 1799, though with a falling-off in his last years. His portraits are mostly characterful but flattering images of dignified society figures, but he developed an obsession with the flighty young Emma Hamilton from 1781, painting her about sixty times in more extravagant poses. His work was especially sought-after by American collectors in the early 20th century and many are now in American museums. By

43780-408: Was an alternative, more direct, tradition in British portraiture to that of Lely and Kneller, tracing back to William Dobson and the German or Dutch Gerard Soest , who trained John Riley , to whom only a few works are firmly attributed and who in turn trained Jonathan Richardson , a fine artist who trained Thomas Hudson who trained Joshua Reynolds and Joseph Wright of Derby. Richardson also trained

44000-400: Was an influence on Blake but had a difficult career, and spent years on his cycle The Progress of Human Culture in the Great Room of the Royal Society of Arts . The most successful history painters, who were not afraid of buttons and wigs, were both Americans settled in London: Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley , though one of his most successful works Watson and the Shark (1778)

44220-591: Was both the first significant British printmaker, and still the best known. Many works were series of four or more scenes, of which the best known are: A Harlot's Progress and A Rake's Progress from the 1730s and Marriage à-la-mode from the mid-1740s. In fact, although he only once briefly left England and his own propaganda asserted his Englishness and often attacked the Old Masters , his background in printmaking , more closely aware of Continental art than most British painting, and apparently his ability to quickly absorb lessons from other painters, meant that he

44440-447: Was built in a late Perpendicular style in Huddlestone stone, probably by Robert and William Vertue . The west towers were designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and blend the Gothic style of the abbey with the Baroque style fashionable during his lifetime. The modern Westminster Abbey is largely based on French Gothic styles, especially those found at Reims Cathedral , rather than the contemporaneous English Gothic styles. For example,

44660-402: Was built. Because of its outstanding universal value, the abbey was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, together with the nearby Palace of Westminster and St Margaret's Church . In 1997, the abbey, which was then receiving approximately 1.75 million visitors each year, began charging admission fees to visitors at the door (although a fee for entering the eastern half of

44880-416: Was chosen as the defining point of the Prime Meridian at the International Meridian Conference in 1884. The United Kingdom lies between latitudes 49° and 61° N , and longitudes 9° W and 2° E . Northern Ireland shares a 224-mile (360 km) land boundary with the Republic of Ireland. The coastline of Great Britain is 11,073 miles (17,820 km) long, though measurements can vary greatly due to

45100-444: Was completed around 1060 and was consecrated on 28   December 1065, about a week before Edward's death on 5   January 1066. A week later, he was buried in the church; nine years later, his wife Edith was buried alongside him. His successor, Harold Godwinson , was probably crowned here, although the first documented coronation is that of William the Conqueror later that year. The only extant depiction of Edward's abbey

45320-474: Was considerable, especially in illuminated manuscripts and monumental sculpture for churches, though the other countries were now essentially provincial, and in the 15th century Britain struggled to keep up with developments in painting on the Continent. A few examples of top-quality English painting on walls or panel from before 1500 have survived, including the Westminster Retable , The Wilton Diptych and some survivals from paintings in Westminster Abbey and

45540-401: Was dissolved in 1550, but the abbey was recognised (in 1552, retroactively to 1550) as a second cathedral of the Diocese of London until 1556. Money meant for the abbey, which is dedicated to St Peter, was diverted to the treasury of St Paul's Cathedral ; this led to an association with the already-old saying " robbing Peter to pay Paul ". The abbey saw the return of Benedictine monks under

45760-404: Was formed in 1931. Nonetheless, "Britain was a very wealthy country, formidable in arms, ruthless in pursuit of its interests and sitting at the heart of a global production system." After Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Britain entered the Second World War . Winston Churchill became prime minister and head of a coalition government in 1940. Despite the defeat of its European allies in

45980-487: Was in fact and in the modern way and dress" and painted a conventional Baroque glorification. Like Hogarth, he played the nationalist card in promoting himself, and eventually beat Sebastiano Ricci to enough commissions that in 1716 he and his team retreated to France, Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini having already left in 1713. Once the other leading foreign painters of allegoric schemes, Antonio Verrio and Louis Laguerre , had died in 1707 and 1721 respectively, Thornhill had

46200-535: Was issued during the Middle Ages . Westminster Abbey continued to be used as a coronation site, but after Edward the Confessor, no monarchs were buried there until Henry III began to rebuild it in the Gothic style . Henry III wanted it built as a shrine to venerate Edward, to match great French churches such as Rheims Cathedral and Sainte-Chapelle , and as a burial place for himself and his family. Construction began on 6   July 1245 under Henry's master mason, Henry of Reynes. The first building stage included

46420-420: Was more aware of, and made more use of, Continental art than most of his contemporaries. Like many later painters Hogarth wanted above all to achieve success at history painting in the Grand Manner , but his few attempts were not successful and are now little regarded. His portraits were mostly of middle-class sitters shown with an apparent realism that reflected both sympathy and flattery, and included some in

46640-424: Was notorious for finishing his exhibition pieces when they were already hanging for show, freely adjusting them to dominate the surrounding works in the tightly packed hangs of the day. Blake's visionary style was a minority taste in his lifetime, but influenced the younger group of " Ancients " of Samuel Palmer, John Linnell , Edward Calvert and George Richmond , who gathered in the country at Shoreham, Kent in

46860-450: Was perhaps the most radical period in British art, also producing William Blake (1757–1827), John Constable (1776–1837) and J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851), the later two being arguably the most internationally influential of all British artists. Turner's style, based on the Italianate tradition although he never saw Italy until in his forties, passed through considerable changes before his final wild, almost abstract, landscapes that explored

47080-432: Was relatively small, but since World War II British artists have made a considerable impact on Contemporary art , especially with figurative work, and Britain remains a key centre of an increasingly globalized art world. The oldest surviving British art includes Stonehenge from around 2600 BC, and tin and gold works of art produced by the Beaker people from around 2150 BC. The La Tène style of Celtic art reached

47300-435: Was still in perfect condition. This was considered proof of his saintliness, and he was canonised in 1161. Two years later he was moved to a new shrine, during which time his ring was removed and placed in the abbey's collection. The abbey became more closely associated with royalty from the second half of the 12th century, as kings increasingly used the nearby Palace of Westminster as the seat of their governments. In 1222,

47520-435: Was the designer William Morris . Morris advocated a return to hand-craftsmanship in the decorative arts over the industrial manufacture that was rapidly being applied to all crafts. His efforts to make beautiful objects affordable (or even free) for everyone led to his wallpaper and tile designs defining the Victorian aesthetic and instigating the Arts and Crafts movement . The Pre-Raphaelites, like Turner, were supported by

47740-443: Was the fictional 2nd-century British king Lucius . One tradition claims that a young fisherman on the River Thames had a vision of Saint Peter near the site. This seems to have been quoted as the origin of the salmon that Thames fishermen offered to the abbey, a custom still observed annually by the Fishmongers' Company . The origins of the abbey are generally thought to date to about 959, when Dunstan and King Edgar installed

47960-432: Was the first country in the world to use an approved COVID-19 vaccine , developing its own vaccine through a collaboration between Oxford University and AstraZeneca , which allowed the UK's vaccine rollout to be among the fastest in the world. The total area of the United Kingdom is approximately 94,354 square miles (244,376 km ), with a land area of 93,723 square miles (242,741 km ). The country occupies

48180-583: Was the leading sporting painter of his day, based in the capital of English horse racing at Newmarket , and producing large numbers of portraits of horses and also battle scenes and conversation pieces with a hunting or riding setting. He had begun life as a page to the family of the Dukes of Beaufort , who in the 1720s sent him to Rome, where he acquired a classicising landscape style based on that of Gaspard Dughet and Claude , which he used in some pure landscape paintings, as well as views of country houses and equine subjects. This introduced an alternative to

48400-407: Was used by the abbey monks for daily meetings, where they would hear a chapter of the Rule of St Benedict and receive their instructions for the day from the abbot. The chapter house was built between 1250 and 1259 and is one of the largest in Britain, measuring nearly 60 feet (18 m) across. For 300 years after the English Reformation, it was used to store state records until they were moved to

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