British Painting : 1700-1850

For many visitors to the National Gallery John Constable's Hay Wain is an established and familiar painting, and it remains one of the most popular in the collection.

But when it was first made, this harmonious scene was at the cutting edge of landscape painting-not just in England, but worldwide.

Constable, along with his contemporary, Turner, were producing a new type of picture, challenging the established hierarchies of painting.

The film shows how British painting developed through the eighteenth century, responding to changes in society and the ambitions of painters who wanted to rival continental artists.

It explores the work of William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough, and the paintings of other artists involved in the formation of the Royal Academy of Arts-the organisation whose rules Constable and Turner would eventually break with spectacular results.