Although its painters and sculptors have mostly been overshadowed by their contemporaries in mainland Europe, Britain has produced many outstanding artists, who are often overlooked in European studies. This phenomenon is examined in this study of British art from the Reformation to the present. The book is linked to a BBC2 television series. As he considers the works of artists as disparate as Stubbs and Bacon, Hogarth and Hockney, Constable and Henry Moore, the author depicts the cultural life of Britain since the Middle Ages which embraces not only painting and sculpture but also history, politics, architecture and literature.