Most famous British paintings date from the 1700s or later. In 1534 England broke with the Church of Rome, and religious images left its churches.
For over a century, from Hans Holbein to Anthony van Dyck, the court hired its painters abroad. It wanted likenesses.
Then British-born painters took over their own market. Patrons still wanted faces. Travelers judged real scenery like a painting, and landscape rose. The public loved stories it already knew, from plays, poems and city life.
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How These Were Chosen
I count a painting as British when its painter was born in Britain or built a career there. That takes in artists who settled in London. It leaves out visitors like the Venetian Canaletto.
A picture had to show British people, places, history or stories, or belong to a British national collection.
12. David Hockney, A Bigger Splash (1967)
A yellow diving board juts out over a flat blue pool. At its tip, a burst of white water hangs in the air. Behind it stand a low pink house with glass doors, two thin palm trees and an empty chair. David Hockney painted the square canvas between April and June 1967.
He was teaching in Berkeley, California, that spring. His source was a photograph he had not taken. It was on the cover of Swimming Pools, a builder's manual published in Menlo Park, California, in 1959.
Hockney painted almost everything in the picture flat. He applied the acrylic with a paint roller, in two or three layers. He had stapled the canvas straight to a wall and drew nothing on it first. The splash got the opposite treatment.
He spent about two weeks on it with small brushes. A real splash lasts a split second, and only a camera can stop it. "I was amused by this," Hockney said, "so I painted it in a very, very slow way."
I would argue that the empty chair on the terrace matters more than the splash, because it tells you that nobody stayed behind to watch the dive.
The painting was first shown in London, not in California. In January 1968, the dealer John Kasmin hung it in his gallery on New Bond Street. The exhibition title simply listed what was on the walls: "a splash, a lawn, two rooms, two stains, some neat cushions and a table... painted."
The picture sold quickly. Its buyer was Sheridan, 5th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, a British aristocrat and collector.
In 1981, the Tate Gallery bought the painting. By then the title had already reached British cinemas. Jack Hazan, a British filmmaker, gave it to a feature about Hockney that he shot between 1971 and 1973.
The film follows the painter and his London circle after his breakup with Peter Schlesinger, his Californian partner. It came out in 1974 as A Bigger Splash.
At a Glance
Artist: David Hockney (1937 to 2026)
Painted: April to June 1967
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Where to see it: Tate Britain, London
About This Painting
How big is A Bigger Splash?
A Bigger Splash measures about 242 by 244 centimeters, roughly eight feet square.
Was A Bigger Splash Hockney's first splash painting?
No, A Bigger Splash came after The Little Splash and The Splash, which Hockney painted on the same theme in 1966. The Splash sold at Sotheby's in London in February 2020 for 23.1 million pounds.
Why is there a pale band around A Bigger Splash?
The pale band around A Bigger Splash is bare canvas. Hockney left a wide border unpainted, which recalls the white frame of a Polaroid print.
Is David Hockney still alive?
David Hockney died at his home in Normandy, France, on 11 June 2026, at the age of 88.
11. Lucian Freud, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping (1995)
A large naked woman lies asleep on a patterned sofa. The figure is life-size and fills almost the whole canvas. Lucian Freud painted her in London in 1995. Freud, a grandson of Sigmund Freud, was born in Berlin and grew up in Britain.
The arm is flung along the top of the sofa. Nobody would hold that pose for a portrait, so I believe the sleep is real.