The story of British art
Over the summer of 2012, Jonathan Jones will tell more than five thousand years of British art history in pictures, from prehistoric times to the present day
Portrait of the artist: Lucian Freud's Frank Auerbach
Jonathan Jones: Freud worked his way into the tradition of Constable and Gainsborough to release the deepest, most intense painting of recent times – as in this study of fellow artist Auerbach
Who's that girl? ... Sarah Lucas's Self-Portrait with Fried Eggs
Jonathan Jones: The former Young British Artist's imagination and dark humour transform the mundane into the suggestive and the suggestive into art
Monstrous war: Francis Bacon's Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion
Jonathan Jones: In Bacon's delightfully disturbing triptych, a Europe of death camps has become a breeding ground for nauseating monsters
Menacing machine: Jacob Epstein's Torso in Metal from the Rock Drill
Jonathan Jones: The 20th century is an age of steel and warfare in Epstein's terrifying vision from 1913-14
The people's pastoral: John Constable's The Cornfield
Jonathan Jones: Constable's down-to-earth vision of the East Anglian countryside depicts shepherds and farmworkers in a painting that is heartstoppingly beautiful
Full steam ahead: JMW Turner's Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway
Jonathan Jones: Rain blends into the steam of the onrushing train in Turner's Romantic vision of the modern world at Maidenhead railway bridge
Eternal England: John Constable's The Hay Wain
Jonathan Jones: In his 1821 painting of a country scene in Suffolk, Constable sees a universe in a peaceful corner of England
Monstrous minds: William Blake's The Ghost of a Flea
Jonathan Jones: In this work that records what he claimed was a real vision, William Blake unleashes a dark, monstrous being that inhabits the depths of the human mind
Royal jelly: James Gillray's A Voluptuary Under the Horrors of Digestion
Jonathan Jones: This satirical 1792 print showing a bloated George, 'prince of whales', sends up a sovereign much mocked for his lavish lifestyle
Tory terror: James Gillray's Promis'd Horrors of the French Invasion
Jonathan Jones: A satirical artist imagines France exporting revolution to Britain in a scene of liberal treachery and blood on the streets
History and heroism: Benjamin West's The Death of the Stag
Benjamin West's staggering painting, created to glorify the ancestor of a member of Clan Mackenzie, transforms a legendary encounter into a great moment of world history
Rough side of the city: Thomas Jones's A Wall in Naples
The Welsh landscape artist preserves a timeless chunk of unvarnished and unprivileged life in Italy in this oil sketch from about 1782
Rural mystery: Thomas Gainsborough's The Market Cart
Jonathan Jones: In one of his last landscapes, Gainsborough paints a tranquil yet majestic rural scene that is filled with a sense of air, atmosphere and mystery
Nature of the beasts: George Stubbs's A Horse Frightened by a Lion
Jonathan Jones: An early example of the Romantic from an artist famed for producing more orderly visions of racehorses
Under the skin of George Stubbs's The Anatomy of the Horse
Jonathan Jones: George Stubbs reveals himself as both a scientist and an artist in this detailed study of a dissection of a horse. His skill makes him the Leonardo da Vinci of the equine kingdom
What a blast: Joseph Wright of Derby's Vesuvius in Eruption
Jonathan Jones: Joseph Wright travelled in Italy but never actually saw Mount Vesuvius erupt, making this atmospheric depiction of the sheer force of nature all the more powerful
Death by drinking: William Hogarth's Gin Lane
Jonathan Jones: In this nightmare vision of a central London street, Hogarth condemns the craze for gin by depicting the poor drinking themselves to death
Cruel science: Joseph Wright of Derby's An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump
Jonathan Jones: Wright turns this 1768 painting of a cruel scientific experiment in a Georgian house into a potent drama of light and darkness
Thoroughbred portrait: George Stubbs's Whistlejacket
George Stubbs's rearing racehorse is transformed into something metaphysical by a blank olive background
Portrait of passion: Thomas Gainsborough's Mrs Mary Robinson: Perdita
Gainsborough gives Mary Robinson a ravishing presence in this masterpiece, electrically setting off her romantic beauty against the misty English landscape
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