"Colorful, chronologically arranged overview uses games, puzzles, and project ideas to encourage young people to appreciate the diverse ways in which British artists reflect their country's culture. Religious art, modern sculpture, exquisite landscapes and urban art are all presented in full-page spreads that engage children by inviting them into the works themselves, challenging them to answer questions about the artists' perceptions and exposing them to the fascinating historical forces that have shaped the artists' work"--Publishers website.

Andrew Graham-Dixon unveils the long-kept secret of Britain's rich and vital visual culture.

Join Katie as she steps into some of the most famous paintings in the world for an exciting art adventure! Katie can't decide what she wants to be when she grows up. Perhaps a trip to the gallery will be an inspiration, as the characters in five famous paintings come to life! Will she be an explorer, a train driver, a horse rider or an artist . . . ? 'A wonderful way to engage children with art. A brilliant combination of education and storytelling' - Parents in Touch (Katie's Picture Show) This art adventure features five famous British paintings:The Cornfield by Constable, Rain, Steam and Speed and The Fighting Temeraire by Turner, Whistlejacket by Stubbs, and The Painter's Daughters Chasing a Butterfly by Gainsborough. Classic picture book character, Katie, has been delighting children for over 25 years. Why not collect all 13 titles in the series? Katie's Picture Show Katie and the Impressionists Katie and the Mona Lisa Katie and the Sunflowers Katie and the Waterlily Pond Katie and the Starry Night Katie and the Spanish Princess Katie and the Bathers Katie in London Katie's London Christmas Katie in Scotland Katie and the Dinosaurs

The revolution in watercolours of the later eighteenth century and its Victorian aftermath is acknowledged to be one of the greatest triumphs of British art. Its effect was to transform the modest tinted drawing of the topographer into a powerful and highly flexible means of expression for some of the Romantic era's greatest artists, among them Thomas Girtin, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. The painters of the next generation were no less ambitious, and the range of subject-matter and technical inventiveness that was sustained for much of the Victorian period was to set a standard in watercolour painting that was without equal abroad. In this magnificently illustrated survey of the great age of British watercolours, Andrew Wilton and Anne Lyles trace the development of attitudes to landscape and to the human figure in the landscape from 1750 to 1880. They show how once the traditional pen and ink drawing and its augmented washes of colour had been abandoned in order to paint directly in watercolours without pen outlines, the way was open for the powerful Romantic landscapes of the following decade and beyond, many of which were painted in the wild mountainous regions of Wales and Scotland. During the nineteenth century, as the gilt-framed exhibition watercolour began to challenge the long-established oil painting in terms of size and in brilliance of colour and effect, the range of subject-matter was broadened to include scenes of country and town life from every part of Britain and, increasingly, from the Continent too. By mid-century the Near East was attracting many of the greatest Victorian watercolourists, including J. E. Lewis, David Roberts and Edward Lear. Other leadingVictorians who regularly worked in watercolour include the Pre-Raphaelite painters John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt, and the American-born James McNeill Whistler, all of whom are included in this book.