Britain has produced some of the world’s most famous artists and paintings. But what made British art ‘great’? Was it the individual genius of artists like Hogarth and Constable? Or were their careers shaped by a distinctly ‘British’ society, culture and history? And if so, why has that distinctiveness been overlooked, and why have we ignored so many of the characters who helped create the story of British art?

In The Invention of British Art, Bendor Grosvenor embarks on a journey of discovery through an incredible array of artworks and artists from 10,000 BCE to the nineteenth century, revealing how the art from these isles was created, what made it distinctive, and why it took so long to emerge. From folk art to the role of female artists, from the influences of invaders to the colonised territories of the British Empire, the book embraces previously overlooked contributions to the story of British art and explores the cultural, political and economic factors that helped to shape it.

Dr Bendor Grosvenor is an art historian specialising in Old Masters and British art. Best known from the BBC series Britain’s Lost Masterpieces and Fake or Fortune?, he has discovered a number of important paintings by prominent artists including Van Dyck, Rubens, Titian, Gainsborough, Beale and Lawrence. He previously worked in the London art trade, and is now based in Scotland.