Top 100 Famous British Painters: Turner, Constable, Bacon and Hockney

Before the grid

Why these painters matter in British art history

British painting has often been constructed in dialogue with Europe, but it retains a recognizable accent: love of landscape, strength of portraiture, satirical humor, taste for storytelling, then a modern figuration of very particular intensity. Turner and Constable change the light of the 19th century; the Pre-Raphaelites reinvent detail; Bacon, Freud and Hockney move the figure in the contemporary world.

The classification favors influence, the quality of the works, presence in museums, posterity and usefulness for a reader who wants to discover or choose a reproduction. Artists who died after 1956, or who are still alive, refer to Wikipedia in accordance with editorial rules.

Method

How the 100 artists were selected

The first ranks go to painters whose influence goes far beyond the United Kingdom: Turner, Constable, Bacon, Hockney, Blake, Gainsborough, Reynolds and the Pre-Raphaelites. The following ranks include transitional artists, regional schools, Scottish colorists, St Ives abstraction, British Pop Art and the London School.

The selection distinguishes British artists by birth and some figures lastingly integrated into the British scene. Pure sculptors and artists who are too peripheral have been excluded to maintain a classification centered on painting.

Choose a reproduction

Look first at the light, the figure or the story

For a bright, classic atmosphere, start with Turner, Constable, Gainsborough or Wilson. For a more literary image, look at Blake, Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Waterhouse. For a modern presence, Bacon, Freud, Hockney, Riley, Auerbach and Rego give very different directions: body tension, color, optics, matter or narration.

Artists who died after this date, or are still alive, are sent to their French Wikipedia page.

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