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| Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder Young Woman Painting 1758 oil on canvas Glasgow Museums |
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| James Northcote The Murder of Edward Prince of Wales at Tewkesbury ca. 1795 oil on canvas Maidstone Museum, Kent |
"This painting depicts an incident towards the end of the Wars of the Roses, after the Battle of Tewkesbury, 4th May 1471, which the Prince of Wales and his mother lost. . . . The painting was probably not worked out in detail beforehand. During its restoration in 1990 many changes of position of limbs and accessories were discovered. Northcote's rather slapdash technique (fashionable at the time) and his liberal use of the non-drying bitumen pigment, made this work difficult to conserve to an exhibitable standard."
– curator's notes from the Maidstone Museum
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| Antonio Zucchi Scene of Strife in Classical Dress 1767 oil on canvas National Trust, Nostell Priory, Yorkshire |
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| Edward Francis Burney Battle of Jersey - The Death of Major Peirson 1781 oil on canvas Jersey Museum and Art Gallery, St Helier |
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| George Morland Seashore: Fishermen hauling in a Boat 1791 oil on canvas Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
"George Morland showed a talent for painting at a very early age and exhibited chalk drawings at the Royal Academy as early as 1773, aged ten. He was apprenticed to his father, the painter Henry Robert Morland, for seven years from 1777. During that time he was chiefly employed in the copying and forging of paintings, particularly seventeenth-century Dutch landscapes. From 1790 onwards Morland was producing larger canvases than he had previously and became particularly associated with rustic and smuggling scenes. He had a prolific output, reputedly painting more than 800 works in the last eight years of his life, but his alcoholism meant he was often plagued by debt."
– curator's notes from the Victoria & Albert Museum
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| Francis Wheatley Rescue of Aemilia from the Shipwreck (scene from Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors) 1794 oil on canvas Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon |
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| Anonymous British Artist Return of the Prodigal Son 18th century oil on canvas Eltham Palace, London |
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| Richard Wilson Destruction of Niobe's Children ca. 1768 oil on canvas National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth |
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| Herman van der Mijn Amnon and Tamar ca. 1725 oil on panel Colchester and Ipswich Museums, Essex |
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| Zoffany-Johan- Anatomy Lecture by William Hunter 1772 oil on canvas Royal College of Physicians, London |
"William Hunter (1718-1783) was a Scottish-born anatomist, surgeon and midwife who became 'perhaps the best teacher of anatomy that ever lived.' Hunter built up a busy practice and was appointed physician-extraordinary to the Queen. His success enabled him to establish an anatomy school in Great Windmill Street, London, which included lecture theatres, dissecting rooms and a museum. He established a superb library and collection of medals and natural history specimens which today forms the collection of the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. The painting shows Hunter in his role as professor of anatomy at the Royal Academy of Art, lecturing on stage with anatomical and live models."
– curator's notes from the Royal College of Physicians
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| François Boucher Mars and Venus surprised by Vulcan ca. 1754 oil on canvas Wallace Collection, London |
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| John Wootton Haymaking in a Landscape with View of the Severn Hills ca. 1740 oil on canvas Government Art Collection, London |
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| Agostino Brunias Servants Washing a Deer ca. 1775 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
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| Joseph Highmore The Good Samaritan 1744 oil on canvas Tate Britain |
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| Joseph Wright of Derby An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump 1768 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
"An audience has gathered around a lecturer to watch an experiment. It is night, and the room is lit by a single candle that burns behind a large rounded glass containing a diseased human skull. A white cockatoo has been placed in a glass container from which the air is being pumped to create a vacuum. Will the lecturer expel the air completely and kill the bird, or allow the air back in and revive it? Wright focuses on the viewers' differing reactions – from the girl unable to watch, to the lovers with eyes only for each other. This is the largest, most ambitious and dramatic of the series of 'candlelight' pictures Wright painted during the 1760s. It captures the drama of a staged scientific experiment but it also functions as a vanitas – a painting concerning the passing of time, the limits of human knowledge and the frailty of life itself."
– curator's notes from the National Gallery