Celtic & Medieval (ca. 800bc-16th Century)--The Celts, mixed with Scandinavian and Dutch tribes, ruled England until the Romans established rule in A.D. 43. Celtic art survived the Roman conquest and Dark Ages Christianity mainly as carved swirls and decorations on the "Celtic Crosses" in medieval cemeteries. During the Dark and Middle Ages, colorful Celtic images and illustrations decorated "illuminated manuscripts" copied by monks. Plenty of these have ended up in London's libraries and museums.

Important examples and artists of this period include:

Wilton Diptych, National Gallery. The first truly British painting was crafted in the late 1390s for Richard II by an unknown artist who mixed Italian and Northern European influences.

Lindisfarne Gospels, British Library. One of Europe's greatest illuminated manuscripts from the 7th century.

Matthew Paris (died 1259). A Benedictine monk who illuminated his own writings, Paris was the St. Albans Abbey chronicler. Examples are now in the British Library and Cambridge's Corpus Christi College.

The Renaissance & Baroque (16th-18th Centuries)--While the Renaissance was more of a Southern European movement, London's museums contain the works of many important old masters from Italy and Germany. Renaissance means "rebirth"; in this case, the renewed use of classical styles and forms. Artists strove for greater naturalism, using newly developed techniques such as linear perspective to achieve new heights of realism. A few foreign Renaissance artists did come to English courts and had an influence on some local artists; however, significant Brits didn't emerge until the baroque period.

The baroque mixes a kind of super-realism based on using peasants as models and an exaggerated use of light and dark, called chiaroscuro, with compositional complexity and explosions of dynamic fury, movement, color, and figures.

Significant artists of this period include:

Pietro Torrigiano (1472-1528). An Italian sculptor, Pietro fled from Florence after breaking the nose of his classmate, Michelangelo. In London, he crafted tombs for the Tudors in Westminster Abbey, including Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. The Victoria and Albert Museum preserves Pietro's terra-cotta bust of Henry VII.

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543). A German Renaissance master of penetrating portraits, Holbein the Younger cataloged many significant figures in 16th-century Europe. You'll find examples in the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and Windsor Castle.

Anton Van Dyck (1599-1641). This Belgian painted royal portraits in the baroque style for Charles I and other Stuarts, setting the tone for British portraiture for the next few centuries and gaining a knighthood. You'll find his works in the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery, the Wallace Collection, and Wilton House, with more in Oxford's Ashmolean Museum.

William Hogarth (1697-1764). Influenced by Flemish masters, Hogarth painted and engraved scenes of everyday life. His serial work such as The Rake's Progress (in Sir John Soane's Museum) were popular morality tales presented as a sort of early version of a comic strip. Seek out his other works in the National Gallery and the Tate Britain, and Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92). A staunch traditionalist and fussy baroque painter, Reynolds was the first president of London's Royal Academy of Arts. Reynolds spent much of his career casting his noble patrons as ancient gods in portrait compositions cribbed from old masters. Many of his works are in the National Gallery, the Tate Britain, the Wallace Collection, and the Dulwich Picture Gallery, and in Oxford's Cathedral Hall.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88). Although Gainsborough was a classical/baroque portraitist like Reynolds, he could be more original. When not immortalizing noble patrons such as Jonathan Buttell (better known as "Blue Boy"), he painted quite a collection of landscapes for himself. His works grace the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum, Oxford's Cathedral Hall and Ashmolean Museum, and Gainsborough's House, a museum and gallery in his birthplace in Suffolk.

The Romantics (Late 18th-19th Centuries)--The Romantics idealized the Romantic tales of chivalry; had a deep respect for nature, human rights, and the nobility of peasantry; and were suspicious of progress. Their paintings tended to be heroic, historic, dramatic, and beautiful. They were inspired by critic and art theorist John Ruskin (1819-1900), who was among the first to praise pre-Renaissance painting and Gothic architecture.

Significant artists of this period include:

William Blake (1757-1827). Romantic archetype, Blake snubbed the Royal Academy of Arts to do his own engraving, prints, illustrations, poetry, and painting. He believed in divine inspiration, but it was the vengeful Old Testament God he channeled; his works were filled with melodrama, muscular figures, and sweeping lines. See his work at the Tate Britain.

John Constable (1776-1837). A little obsessed with clouds, Constable was a great British landscapist whose scenes (especially those of happy, agrarian peasants) got more idealized with each passing year -- while his compositions and brushwork became freer. You'll find his best stuff in the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Turner, called by some "The First Impressionist," was a prolific artist whose mood-laden, freely brushed watercolor landscapes influenced Monet. London and the River Thames were frequent subjects. He bequeathed his collection of some 19,000 watercolors and 300 paintings to the people of Britain. The Tate Britain's Clores Gallery displays the largest number of Turner's works, and others grace the National Gallery and Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum.

Pre-Raphaelites (1848-70). This "Brotherhood" declared art had gone all wrong with Raphael (1483-1520) and set about to emulate the 15th-century Italian painters that preceded him -- though their symbolically imbued, sweetly idealized, hyper-realistic work actually looks nothing like it. They loved depicting scenes from Romantic poetry and Shakespeare as well as the Bible. There were seven founders and many followers, the most important were Dante Rossetti, William Hunt, and John Millais; you can see work by all three at the Tate Britain and Oxford's Ashmolean Museum.

The 20th Century--The only artistic movement or era the Brits can claim a major stake in is contemporary art, with many young British artists bursting onto the international gallery scene just before and after World War II. The 20th century, if anything, showed the greatest artists searching for a unique, individual expression rather than adherence to a particular school.

Important artists of this period include:

Henry Moore (1898-1986). A sculptor, Moore saw himself as a sort of reincarnation of Michelangelo. He mined his marble from the same quarries as the Renaissance master and let the stone itself dictate the flowing, abstract, surrealistic figures carved from it. Moore did several public commissions (Knife Edge [1967] at Abingdon St. Gardens underground garage; The Arch [1979] on the east bank of the Longwater in Kensington Gardens), and started working in bronze after the 1950s. His sculptures also grace the Tate Modern and Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum and Clare College.

Ben Nicholson (1894-1982). The most famous of Britain's abstract artists, Nicholson is known for his low-relief abstract paintings using layered cardboard and minimalist colors (his most famous are just white). His work is in the Tate Modern and Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum.

Francis Bacon (1909-92). A dark, brooding expressionist, Bacon used formats such as the triptych, which were usually reserved for religious subjects, to show man's foibles. Examples of his work are in the Tate Modern, including Triptych August 1972 (1972).

Lucien Freud (born 1922). Freud's portraits and nudes live in a depressing world of thick paint, fluid lines, and harsh light. The grandson of psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, this artist has pieces at the Tate Modern, including Girl With a White Dog (1950-51) and Standing in Rags (1988-89).

David Hockney (born 1937). Hockney employs a less Pop Arty style than American Andy Warhol -- though Hockney does reference modern technologies and culture -- and is much more playful with artistic traditions. The Tate Modern is the place to see his creations, including Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy (1970-71).

Damien Hirst (born 1965). The guy who pickles cows, Hirst is a celebrity/artist whose work sets out to shock. He's a winner of Britain's Turner Prize, and his work is prominent in the collection of Charles Saatchi (whose Saatchi Gallery in London displays his holdings) and was featured in "Sensation," the exhibition that prompted protest, vandalism, and the formation of a decency commission in New York City.