The English king, Richard II, commissions a diptych (the Wilton Diptych) showing himself being presented to the Virgin and Child

Hans Holbein the Younger pays his first visit to England, and stays with Thomas More in Chelsea

Van Dyck moves to London and becomes portrait painter to the British court and aristocracy

English painter Joseph Wright sets up a studio in his home town, Derby

Joshua Reynolds, by now the most fashionable portrait painter in London, copes with as many as 150 sitters in a year

Liverpool-born artist George Stubbs sets up in London as a painter, above all, of people and horses

Portrait-painter Thomas Gainsborough moves from Suffolk to set up a studio in fashionable Bath

German painter Johann Zoffany moves to England to find work as a painter of conversation pieces and portraits

American artist Benjamin West settles in London, where he becomes famous for his large-scale history scenes

The Royal Academy is established in London, with Joshua Reynolds as its first president

Thomas Gainsborough moves from Bath to set up a studio in London

John Singleton Copley, already established as America's greatest portrait painter, moves to London

English painter J.M.W. Turner is only 15 when a painting of his, a watercolour, is first exhibited at the Royal Academy

Scottish painter Henry Raeburn depicts the Reverend Robert Walker skating on Duddingston Loch

French painter Théodore Géricault begins a two-year visit to Britain

English painter John Constable acquires a house in Hampstead, a region of London that features frequently in his work

English artist Samuel Palmer moves to Shoreham, in Kent, for the most inspired years of his career

20-year-old English artist Edward Lear publishes Family of the Psittacidae, a collection of his paintings of parrots

English artist Edward Lear begins a series of travels, sketching around the Mediterranean and in the Middle East

J.M.W. Turner paints an icon of British art, The Fighting Téméraire

Edward Lear publishes his Book of Nonsense, consisting of limericks illustrated with his own cartoons

English art students Rossetti, Holman Hunt and Millais form the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Queen Victoria knights her favourite painter of animals, Edwin Landseer

English cartoonist John Tenniel begins a 50-year career drawing for the satirical magazine Punch

US artist James McNeill Whistler settles in London, which he makes his home for the rest of his life