Portraits and self-portraiture in the arts Books

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Book SynopsisD'Amato's portraits give individual faces to the ongoing crisis in African-American communities.

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Book SynopsisPhilip de László (1869-1937) was the pre-eminent portrait artist working in Britain between 1907 and 1937. He painted nearly 3,000 portraits, including those of kings and queens, four American presidents and members of the European nobility. This title gives an account of both his life and his work.Trade Review"[Hart-Davis] is uniquely well-qualified to undertake a life of de Laszlo . . . . this biography is lavishly and intelligently illustrated . . . . [it] should succeed in renewing interest in an artist who ably captured a glamorous, now-vanished world."--Martin Rubin, Washington Times -- Martin Rubin * Washington Times *

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Book SynopsisFor much of early modern history, the opportunity to be immortalized in a portrait was explicitly tied to social class: only landed elites and royalty had the money and power to commission such an endeavour. This book examines the patronage and production of portraits in Tudor and Jacobean England.Trade ReviewSelected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2013 in the Fine Arts Category. -- Outstanding Academic Title * Choice *

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Book SynopsisExploring the relationship with painted portraits, conventions, settings, sitting, making and multiple production, this book argues that the new centrality and aesthetic ambition of the sculptural portrait were informed by Enlightenment notions of perception and selfhood.Trade Review“This book is beautifully laid out with superb photographs and details of sculpture illustrated, while the dense text provides a penetrating analysis of the subject… This ground-breaking compendium of observation and research accrued through years of experience, curating and teaching demands attentive reading.”—Tessa Murdoch, Burlington Magazine -- Tessa Murdoch * Burlington Magazine *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Elizabeth Goldring’s illustrated biography Nicholas Hilliard: Life of an Artist, published to coincide with a major centenary exhibition, tells his story with all the flair of her last book, an examination of the flamboyant and (for his day) selfie-loving Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester” —Suzi Feay, Financial Times“Goldring’s engaging account of his life, character and artistic methods, supported by gorgeous illustrations and illuminating new archival discoveries, makes for a wonderful book, at once authoritative and full of pleasures.” —Helen Hackett, Literary Review“Before you book your tickets [to the National Portrait Gallery’s Hilliard retrospective], read Elizabeth Goldring’s sumptuous survey Nicholas Hilliard: Life of an Artist. Goldring, whose previous book Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and the World of Elizabethan Art, considered portraiture and patronage, has a fine, incisive eye. This is a scholarly book … but full of insight and courtly intrigue. [. . .] Goldring gives the bones of Hilliard’s biography [. . .] and his turbulent times [. . .] but more than that she encourages you to really look. [. . .]The close-up photographs of jewels and lace are a revelation.” – Laura Freeman, The Times“Richly detailed and illuminating [. . .] If Hans Holbein fixed the appearance of Henry VIII’s court for the ages, it is Nicholas Hilliard who performed that service for Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth. His exquisite portrait miniatures captured not just her transition from youthful monarch to Virgin Queen to Gloriana but the constellation of her court. [. . .] for those sittings he would stare at the royal visage for hours from mere feet away. Perhaps no one else ever looked at her so intently. Goldring’s fascinating and beautifully produced book allows us to do something similar with the limner himself.” – Michael Prodger, The Sunday Times"Elizabeth Goldring's engrossing, thickly illustrated biography shows that it was a rags-to-riches-and-back-again story. [. . .] This superb book vividly conjures a costly dresser and spendthrift, terrible with money, litigious, and sometimes slippery with creditors [. . .] Patrons bailed him out more than once, and his penultimate year was spent in Ludgate jail for debt. What humiliation for one who painted everyone who counted."—Philippa Stockley, Evening Standard“A brilliant and definitive biography”—Jerry Brotton, Financial Times Weekend Magazine“Scholarly”—Laura Gascoigne, The Spectator“Superb”—Simon Wilson, RA Magazine“A fascinating and beautifully produced life of the Elizabethan miniaturist”—The Sunday Times (‘Best Recent Books’)An Apollo 'Off the Shelf' Selection (February 2019)An Arts Society 'Good Reads' Selection (Spring 2019)“A landmark scholarly biography . . . Goldring excavates the connections that let an Exeter goldsmith become an artist renowned at the courts of Europe. She has rescued a Renaissance in miniature”—Jonathan Jones, The Guardian“Nicholas Hilliard not only allows us to study the artist and his gifts. It pulses too with the vivid conviction we find in JH Plumb's study of Walpole or Claire Tomalin's of Pepys. [. . .] Everyday lives in the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages are vividly rendered here. Goldring sharpens our ability to look beyond the glossy-magazine analogs of court painting and decipher, as with TS Eliot's vignette of the poet Webster, the skull beneath the skin. She is good, too, at placing Protestant Hilliard and his family in the context of the religious wars that threatened Britain for nearly a century and ravaged Europe for more than two. [. . .] At times Goldring's book reads like an Elizabethan version of a John le Carre novel [. . .] In spite of informed and scrupulous scholarship, with the author ever distinguishing what is known from what may reasonably be inferred, the narrative is unputdownable” —Grey Gowrie, The Financial Times“Meticulous [. . .] lavishly illustrated [. . .] absorbing [. . .] a milestone in Hilliard studies” —James Hall, TLS“Elizabeth Goldring’s absorbing and well-researched historical biography of Hilliard surveys the personal and professional life of the artist, and examines the personalities behind his portraits.” —Olenka Horbatsch, British Museum Magazine“A fascinating and beautifully produced life of the Elizabethan miniaturist” —The Times (Best Books of the Year)“An outstanding archivally-based biography [. . .] this essential hardback study of Protestant England's first native-born artist, with a brilliant European reputation across the Catholic Renaissance courts (magnificently and fully illustrated in colour), acts as a profound reminder of the diplomatic power of great art” —Stephen Lloyd, Art Quarterly“The National Portrait Gallery's superb exhibition of Elizabethan miniatures closed last month but for those who missed it, Elizabeth Goldring's Nicholas Hilliard: Life of an Artist is worth the cover price for its beautiful close-up photographs alone.” —William Moore, Evening Standard (Best summer holiday reads)“[A] rich and compelling new biography”—Mathew Lyons, History Today"Goldring has unearthed each and every fact known about Hilliard (surprisingly many) and woven them into a contextualised, informative and well paced text [. . .] a superior publication [. . .] timely and scholarly" —Mike von Joel, State“This is set to be the definitive study of Nicholas Hilliard. It includes a full biography and includes a wealth of illustrations, many of the images appearing in colour for the first time. New archival research adds to the authoritative nature of the text and the quality of production is everything you could wish for – a book like this can easily be let down in that department, but this shines”—Artbookreview.net“Crisp, elegant and engaging prose [. . .] A lavish abundance of full-colour illustrations [. . .] at last, the biography that the outstanding miniaturist truly deserves” —William Aslet, Country Life“Sumptuous [. . .] the first ever full investigation of [Hilliard's] life and art, illustrated with 250 beautiful colour images. [. . .] Elizabeth Goldring has tracked down a wealth of documentation and her eye for detail, deftness of touch and elegance of style perfectly matches the exquisite works of her fascinating subject.” —Roderick Conway Morris, The Lady“This gorgeous book is a beautifully written and thoroughly researched account of Hilliard’s life and work and illustrated throughout with many images appearing in colour for the first time” —Henry Malt, The Artist “[A] rich and compelling new biography”—Mathew Lyons, History Today Winner of the 2019 Apollo Book of the Year Award, sponsored by Apollo: The International Art MagazineShortlisted for the Richard Schlagman Art Book Award, sponsored by the Whitechapel GalleryShortlisted for the 2019 Best First Biography Prize, sponsored by Slightly Foxed MagazineShortlisted for the William M. B. Berger Prize for British Art History"This is a book I have long been waiting for, the first fully documented biography of Nicholas Hilliard setting him within the political, social and cultural worlds of his age. It will long remain the definitive work."—Roy Strong

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Book SynopsisA vibrant survey of visual culture in Golden Age Denmark (1801-1864).

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Book SynopsisIn the voluminous scholarship that's been written on Paul Cezanne, little has been said about the 24 portraits in oil that Cezanne made of his wife, Hortense Fiquet Cezanne, over an extended twenty-year period. This title focuses on these paintings as a group and looks at the differences that render many of them unrecognizable as the same person.Trade Review"This rich substantial reading raises Cezanne studies to a new level... Highly recommended." Choice "[Sidlauskas's] eloquent and penetrating visual analyses are a pleasure to read... [An] impressive and important book." Women's Art Journal "Sidlauskas's observations are detailed, sensitive and sometimes truly poetic." -- Karsten Schubert Burlington MagazineTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Seeing Cezanne 1. The Counter-Muse A Brief History 2. The Color of Emotion 3. The Materiality of Vision 4. Toward an Ideal Dissolving Difference Conclusion: The Woman in Question Appendix: Paintings of Hortense Fiquet Cezanne Notes Bibliography List of Illustrations Index

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Book Synopsis"National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. in association with Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford".Trade Review"In the catalog Ms. Naeem gives this form's democratic range a place in the progressive pantheon."---Edward Rothstein, Wall Street Journal"Black Out . . . does the interesting work of considering the history and meaning of the evocative and possibly insidious outlined form. . . . [I]t is the older images that stand out as the most interesting. Less familiar to a majority of readers, the historical context of their creation is particularly rich. . . . In the end, it is the silhouette’s many oppositions and ambiguities that make it so compelling."---Hannah Stamler, Brooklyn Rail"Readers will come away with a refreshed appreciation of silhouettes, both their significance historically but also their influence on today's artists whose art compels viewers to reflect on identity and its portrayal through time."---Nancy B. Turner, Library Journal"The catalogue of a 2018–19 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, [Black Out] examines an overlooked art form particularly popular in the first part of the 19th century, before the advent of photography. . . . There are 98 excellent pictures, a few in full color, plus pictures of tracing machines. The catalogue proper includes 49 examples, all carefully described. Including notes to sources with commentaries, this volume should become the standard reference on the subject." * Choice *"Presenting the distinctly American story behind the silhouettes in the exhibition, Black Out vividly delves into the historical roots and contemporary interpretations of this evocative, ever popular form of portraiture."---Peter Bower, British Paper Historians Journal"The book’s strength is that it speaks to the lives of those without power. For this reason, I highly recommend it."---Amy Ione, Leonardo Reviews

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Book SynopsisLavishly illustrated, Medici Women: Portraits of Power, Love and Betrayal in the Court of Duke Cosimo I is an indispensable work for anyone with a passion for Italian renaissance history, art, and court culture.Table of ContentsLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Introduction * Bloodlines: Portraits of Maria Salviati de' Medici by Bronzino and Pontormo * Declarations of Dynasty: The State Portrait of Eleonora di Toledo * 'These tender and well-born plants': Young Daughters and Wards of Cosimo and Eleonora * A 'Medici' Papacy and a Counter-Reformation in Portraiture: Allori's Giulia d'Alessandro de' Medici * The New Medicean Cosmos: Lucrezia de' Medici, Duchess of Ferrara * Damnatio Memoriae: Isabella de' Medici Orsini, 'La stella di casa Medici' * Up Close and Personal: Patronage and the Miniature Eleonora ('Dianora') di Toledo de' Medici Epilogue APPENDICES TERMINOLOGY AND ABBREVIATIONS NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS INDEX

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Book SynopsisPart of the Medieval Imagination series, this title explores portraiture in the medieval and Renaissance periods.Trade Review"Recommended as an art history resource for middle and high-school students."--SchoolArts Magazine "This is a charming book, accessible to readers of all ages, whether for the pictures alone or the wonderful stories told through them."--The Bloomsbury Review Recommended as an art history resource for middle and high-school students. SchoolArts Magazine" This is a charming book, accessible to readers of all ages, whether for the pictures alone or the wonderful stories told through them. The Bloomsbury Review" Recommended as an art history resource for middle and high-school students. "SchoolArts Magazine" """ This is a charming book, accessible to readers of all ages, whether for the pictures alone or the wonderful stories told through them. "The Bloomsbury Review" """ "Recommended as an art history resource for middle and high-school students."--"SchoolArts Magazine""" "This is a charming book, accessible to readers of all ages, whether for the pictures alone or the wonderful stories told through them."--"The Bloomsbury Review"""

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Book SynopsisThe exhibition "Space/Sight/Self" was designed to study the role of portraiture in contemporary art as a nexus of three issues - identity, vision and place. This catalogue documents the exhibition and helps to facilitate viewers' reflections and responses about the spaces, sights and selves.

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Book SynopsisHenry James Framed is a cultural history of Henry James as a work of art, having sat for his portrait twenty-four times.Trade Review"Henry James Framed is a beautifully produced book."—Daniel A. Burr, Gay & Lesbian Review“Who knew there were so many portraits of Henry James? Henry James Framed is both an engaging catalogue of these images and a collective biography that invites us to see the artist through the eyes of some of his most visually gifted contemporaries.”—Ruth Bernard Yeazell, Sterling Professor of English at Yale University“In his sparkling Henry James Framed Michael Anesko takes us on a characteristically witty and civilized journey through James’s life and career—through the surprising number of likenesses (and unlikenesses) that were made of him between 1862 and 1914. Through brilliant detective work, we get a delightful, stimulating picture of the social and artistic world of this great novelist who was also an inveterate critic of art—and, as we learn, frequently its subject.”—Philip Horne, founding general editor of The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James series“Michael Anesko freshly and incisively illuminates Henry James’s relationships with artists, the circumstances of his sitting for portraits, the critical (and personal) reception of the finished works, and the provenance of the pieces during and after James’s life. Henry James Framed is a delight to read.”—Linda Simon, author of The Critical Reception of Henry James: Creating a Master“This useful volume provides fascinating tales of how the portraits were received privately and in public exhibitions, as well as when and how they changed hands, were sold or bequeathed. Anesko provides well-researched tracings of the histories of these works and the stories each portrait has to tell, deploying his extensive knowledge of James’s life and writings with an incisive touch.”—Tamara Follini, general editor of The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James seriesTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: Partial to Portraits 1. Uncanny Possession: The Queer Provenance of John La Farge’s Henry James 2. “I, Too, Am Someone Here”: The Birth of the Lion 3. “Yielding to the Bard’s Behest”: Paying Court in George Du Maurier’s Two Thrones 4. “Civilized to His Fingertips”: James’s Sargent, Sargent’s “James” 5. “Nicer than Most of Them”: John White Alexander’s Forgotten Illustration 6. In a “Cosmo de’ Medici Mood”: Larkin Goldsmith Mead’s Henry James 7. “Making Quite a Reputation”: The “Theatrical Manner” of Paul Tilton’s Henry James 8. “Dear” Henry James: Anna Lea Merritt’s Lost Portrait 9. “A Student of Taste”: Rudolf Lehmann’s “Henry James” 10. “Commendably Droll”: Philip Burne Jones Paints Henry James 11. “My Own Head on the Block”: William Rothenstein’s Portraits of Henry James 12. “The Smooth & Anxious Clerical Gentleman”: Ellen Emmet’s Henry James 13. “Won’t It Be Fun?”: Jane Erin Emmet von Glehn’s Weekend Sketch 14. “Not Positively or Richly Rejoiceful”: Hendrik Christian Andersen’s Henry James 15. “The Profile of an Eagle”: Jacques-Émile Blanche’s Henry James 16. “Too Little of the Promise”: The Favorite Nephew’s Henry James 17. An “Astonishing” Economy of Means: Cecilia Beaux’s “Henry James” 18. “A Rather ‘Important’ Piece”: Annie Louisa Swynnerton’s Henry James 19. “Difficult, Perverse, Obscure”: John Singer Sargent’s Charcoal Portrait 20. “A Very Fine Thing Indeed”: John Singer Sargent’s Henry James 21. “My Aged and Battered Mug”: Derwent Wood’s Portrait Bust 22. “Not with the Happiest Result”: Lewis Charles Powles’s Henry James Epilogue: A Case of Mistaken Identity Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA startlingly powerful collaboration reimagines female beautyWhat is beauty without pain? Compromise is what our culture offers women: cinching, pinching, cutting, shaving, scraping, starving, and, of course, lifting and separating, all in service of one sharply circumscribed model purported to be pleasing—but not to most, if any, women. This extraordinary book reimagines beauty at its most provocative and fetishized locus: the female breast. Artist, writer, and scholar Joanna Frueh scrutinizes ideals of beauty and sensuality, often motivated by her experiences with breast cancer. Frances Murray, her friend and collaborator for more than thirty years, documents Frueh’s journey of unapologetic beauty in a series of intimate, dazzlingly original photographs before and after her bilateral mastectomy and chemotherapy. Reflecting with insight, directness, and humor—and with contributions from a breast surgeon, an oncologist, and artists and scholars who have had breast cancer—Frueh arrives at a new, liberating view of beauty and of the sensual pleasure found in transformative self-acceptance. Central to this reckoning is her documentation and critique of the notion of hyperbeauty (the flash of flesh appeal, hyperthin, hyperfeminine, hyperbosomy, hypersexy, and hyperyoung sold at the global 24/7 beauty bazaar) and her playful, inventive presentation of tools for remaking minds and hearts disfigured by self-denying ideals.In its bracing critique, passionate argument, and compelling narrative—all illustrative of its own unapologetic beauty—this collaboration is a performance of startling power, stirring to consider and a pleasure to behold.Trade Review"Unapologetic Beauty is a downright necessary meditation on women’s wisdom and beauty in aging. Joanna Frueh and Frances Murray—in writing and image—call out the fact that our ‘hyperbeauty’ culture relies on stereotypical ‘taboos’ to make individuals unique or edgy, when we must rather recognize that ‘real flesh, real love: they are the taboos.’ And the world needs more of both."—Maria Elena Buszek, University of Colorado, Denver"A wonderful, evocative depiction of a woman in all her glory."—Susan Love, author of Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book"Joanna Frueh develops her earlier strands: body image; representation of self; relationships between image, text, and body; body work; illness and healing. Starting with friendship and creativity, she draws these themes in her work together in a powerful invocation of moving toward self-love through self-acceptance. It will always be the right time to read this, no matter the body one inhabits."—Hilary Robinson, editor of Feminism Art Theory: An Anthology 1968-2014Table of ContentsContentsAn Art of FriendshipCulture’s Breasts ICulture’s Breasts IIMy BreastsApologyHyperbeautyBeauty HeroesBeauty RedefinedThe Pleasure of Pleasing OurselvesLanguageThe 4 C’s of Creating BeautyAcknowledgmentsNotesGlossary

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Book SynopsisA remarkable collection of prison "portraiture" photosTrade Review"In a stimulating introductory essay accompanying this collection of extraordinary photographic portraits, Jackson (The Story Is True) recalls visiting in 1975 Arkansas's Cummins state prison farm, where an inmate invited him to fill his pockets with about 200 discarded prisoner identification photographs, likely dating from 1915 to 1940.... Shrewdly, Jackson balances their remarkable refurbishment with a strong sense of provenance (retaining staple holes and creases, for example), while eschewing any attempt to connect each haunting image with a particular crime or narrative. Given unprecedented and (from the perspective of their original purpose) utterly unintended scope, the human dimensions of these images grant each an irreversible dignity for the first time, while simultaneously taking on the essential characteristic Jackson names: they become 'mirrors' of ourselves." —Publishers Weekly"I'm intrigued by the portraits of these prisoners. These pictures all speak to me of another time not only because of the way the people are dressed, but also because of the direct simplicity and innocence of the images. Today, when so many photographs are altered and manipulated, the honesty and reality of these images make them stand out as powerful and true portraiture for all time."—Mary Ellen MarkTable of Contents1. Pictures from a Drawer; 2. Restoring the Eyes; 3. Size; 4. Dating the Images; 5. The Women; 6. Portraits; 7. Seeing People; 8. The Order of Things; 9. Mirrors; II.; Images; Appendix: Cooter's Yellow Pad

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Book SynopsisFive compelling essays and fifty stunning portraits and profiles of American environmental activists This second volume in the Americans Who Tell the Truth series features Robert Shetterly's magnificent color portraits and profiles of fifty environmental and climate activists—people who diagnose the truth of the greatest crisis humanity has ever confronted and take action. The book also features original essays by revered environmentalists Bill McKibben, Leah Penniman, Diane Wilson, Bill Bigelow, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, whose words illuminate the plight and its causes, and point a way forward. Along with the genocide of Indigenous peoples and the institution of slavery, the third tragic and persistent mistake of the leaders of this country was to attempt to separate economic and political culture from the laws of nature—to operate on the basis that nature could be exploited endlessly for profit. The damage done to the Earth and to the future of life on the planet is incalculable. The people portrayed here have bought warnings, offered solutions, and organized movements to restore ecological sanity.Trade Review"Americans Who Tell the Truth offers much-needed rays of hope in times made dark by the climate crisis and deep inequality. It provides uplifting portraits, both verbal and pictorial, of courageous activists who have devoted their lives to the fight for climate justice. " -- —David M. Driesen, University Professor, Syracuse University College of Law; author, The Specter of Dictatorship"Portraits of Earth Justice illuminates the humanity of forward-thinking advocates taking critical bold actions on the challenge of our lifetime: the climate crisis. At a time when democracy and the very life support systems of humanity are threatened, let these beautiful faces and works inspire you to keep rising up, or rise up for the first time, to preserve our rights and this beautiful and sustaining planet for all of our children and future generations. " -- Julia Olson, Executive Director and Chief Legal Counsel, Our Children’s Trust"Through Robert Shetterly'ss masterful portraits of brilliant women and men activists in the work of doing justice to the soil and the plants and animals we need to nurture, and through their passionate essays imploring us to cherish instead of despoil the only Earth we have, this book empowers us. Like the words of Sandra Steingraber inscribed in her portrait, 'We are all musicians in a great human orchestra, and it is now time to play the Save the World Symphony.' " -- Peter Davis, Academy Award winning filmmaker, author of Girl of My Dreams"It is rare that you come across a book as stunningly impactful as Portraits of Earth Justice. The essays by this diverse cast of environmental protagonists are riveting and Rob Shetterly’s portraits of people who love and care for the earth are piercing in their beauty and depth of character. I can’t think of a better way to move people, particularly young people, from despair about the climate crisis to empowerment and inspiration than sharing this gift to Mother Earth that Rob Shetterly has created. " -- Medea Benjamin, author and cofounder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace

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Book SynopsisFacing China is an exploration of the portrait arts in China from the dynastic to the modern and contemporary, in painting, sculpture, photography and video. The book focuses on truth and memory in the portraiture process, from encounters between subject, portrait and artist, to broader familial, social and political arenas. It also examines the influence of location on portrait production, reception and display, from tombs, ancestral shrines, temples, gardens, and palace halls to public and private spaces. Featuring 150 fine illustrations, with 100 in colour, Facing China has much to say to specialists in the field as well as general readers interested in Chinese art.

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Book SynopsisA fascinating look at how Elizabethan England was transformed by its interactions with cultures from around the world Challenging the myth of Elizabethan England as insular and xenophobic, this revelatory study sheds light on how the nation’s growing global encounters—from the Caribbean to Asia—created an interest and curiosity in the wider world that resonated deeply throughout society. Matthew Dimmock reconstructs an extraordinary housewarming party thrown at the newly built Cecil House in London in 1602 for Elizabeth I where a stunning display of Chinese porcelain served as a physical manifestation of how global trade and diplomacy had led to a new appreciation of foreign cultures. This party was also the likely inspiration for Elizabeth’s celebrated Rainbow Portrait, an image that Dimmock describes as a carefully orchestrated vision of England’s emerging ambitions for its engagements with the rest of the world. Bringing together an eclectic variety of sources including play texts, inventories, and artifacts, this extensively researched volume presents a picture of early modern England as an outward-looking nation intoxicated by what the world had to offer.Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British ArtTrade Review“A compelling analysis [. . .]” It has wonderful illustrations of maps and globes, portraits, calligraphy, prints, textiles and porcelain”—Ann Hughes, Times Higher Education Supplement“A pleasure to hold and peruse: a luxury good in its own right”—Elizabeth Goldring, The Burlington Magazine

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Book SynopsisA new account of painting in early modern England centered on the art and legacy of Anthony van Dyck As a courtier, figure of fashion, and object of erotic fascination, Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) transformed the professional identities available to English artists. By making his portrait sittings into a form of courtly spectacle, Van Dyck inspired poets and playwrights at the same time that he offended guardians of traditional hierarchies. A self-consciously Van Dyckian lineage of artists, many of them women, extends from his lifetime to the end of the eighteenth century and beyond. Recovering the often surprising responses of both writers and painters to Van Dyck’s portraits, this book provides an alternative perspective on English art’s historical self-consciousness. Built around a series of close readings of artworks and texts ranging from poems and plays to early biographies and studio gossip, it traces the reception of Van Dyck’s art on the part of artists like Mary Beale, William Hogarth, and Richard and Maria Cosway to bestow a historical specificity on the frequent claim that Van Dyck founded an English school of portraiture.Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

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Book SynopsisThis beautifully and thoroughly illustrated book, which constitutes the first serious investigation of the relationship between Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, will be of considerable interest to both British and American art historians, and appeal to art lovers from both countries. West and Copley have always and properly been viewed as the two pre-eminent eighteenth-century American artists, despite the fact that, at the age of twenty-one, West left his native shores in 1760, never to return. He went on to become immensely successful in England, becoming, among other things, the second president of the Royal Academy of Arts. Copley spent half his working life also in England. However, before making the move across the Atlantic, he made his mark as an exceptionally talented artist, who, without any real training, painted likenesses of fellow Bostonians, including ones of figures such as John Hancock and Paul Revere, that have become icons of American history. While those portraits remain his most widely admired works, after 1775 and his resettling in England, he started painting distinctly different types of pictures, initially showing modern historical subjects in emulation of the model provided him by West, following, for example, West's celebrated Death of General Wolfe, exhibited in 1771, with his own Death of the Earl of Chatham, begun in 1779. For a brief span of time, the two expatriate Americans had a close working relationship, that we can see substantially reflected in both the formal language and the subject matter of many of their best works, but it eventually and inevitably turned into rivalry. The book begins with a brief prologue discussing the earliest of West's depictions of recent historical events and of subjects set in America, painted prior to Copley's arrival in England. It then follows the year-by-year evolution of Copley's painting from 1775 to his death in 1815, with an underlying focus upon his ongoing give-and-take with West, and it ends with examination of hitherto little-known and unstudied major late paintings, from after 1800, by both artists.

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Book SynopsisThis book offers a renewed look at Emma Hamilton, the eighteenth-century celebrity who was depicted by many major artists, including Angelica Kauffman, George Romney, and Ãlisabeth VigÃe-Le Brun. Adopting an art historical and feminist lens, Ersy Contogouris analyzes works of art in which Hamilton appears, her performances, and writings by her contemporaries to establish her impact on this pivotal moment in European history and art. This pioneering volume shows that Hamilton did not attempt to present a coherent or polished identity, and argues instead that she was a kaleidoscope of different selves through which she both expressed herself and presented to others what they wanted to see. She was resilient, effectively asserted her agency, and was a powerful inspiration for generations of artists and women in their own search for expression and self-actualization.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Emma Hamilton, the Most Extraordinary Compound Ever Beheld; 1. La vie de Lady Hamilton est un roman; 2. The Acme of Sir William’s Delights; 3. Emma’s Attitudes: Movements and Surprising Transformations; 4. Emma's Tarantella; 5. Model, Muse, and Artist; Conclusion

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisJim Davis explores the relationship between comic performance and the visual arts in England c.17801830, focussing on the influence of Hogarth and Wilkie on theatre criticism and portraiture, caricature as critique and the contribution of comic actors to notions of national identity.Table of ContentsPart I. English Comic Actors and their Representation: 1. The low comic actor; 2. Artists and comic actors; 3. Perspectives on comedy and comic acting; Part II. Humorous as a Sketch by Hogarth: 4. Comedy and caricature: Joseph Munden and Isabella Mattocks; 5. John Liston: caricaturing preachers and cockneys; 6. The low comedian as material object; 7. Caricature, degradation, persona and portraiture; 8. Paintings by George Clint; Part III. Chaste as a Picture by Wilkie: 9. Wilkie, everyday life and the theatre; 10. Acting from nature and observation; 11. John Bannister: 'the best kind of Englishman'; 12. John Emery: 'this Wilkie of Actors'; 13. Actors as artists and connoisseurs; Part IV. Alone I Did It! The Case of Charles Mathews: 14. Charles Mathews 'at home'; 15. Charles Mathews: paintings, portraits and prints; 16. The Harlow portrait of Charles Mathews.

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Book SynopsisOne of the most fascinating aspects of Rembrandt's extraordinary artistic career is his suite of brooding half-length portraits of religious figures from the late 1650s and early 1660s. Painted during a difficult time in the artist's life - when he no longer enjoyed a ready market for his works and may have turned to his deep religious convictions for solace - these images are among the most evocative Rembrandt created. For years scholars have debated whether these paintings were intended as a series, yet until now these works have, unbelievably, never been shown together. An exhibition by the National Gallery of Art and this accompanying catalog assemble seventeen of the paintings for the first time, finally giving the powerful images their due. Many of these subtle and wondrous paintings have been identified as images of apostles and evangelists, but among them are also representations of Christ, the Virgin, and still-unidentified saints and monks. In Rembrandt's typical fashion, the

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Christian Krohg, the Radical Naturalist 2. Naturalism, the Dark Side of Realism 3. The Heroism of the Scientist 4. Hippolyte Taine and the Modern Breakthrough in Scandinavia 5. Christian Krohg in Skagen: Painting according to Taine 6. Naturalism and the Beholder: Sympathy and Theatricality 7. Naturalist Paragone: Literature and Painting 8. Albertine in the Police Doctor’s Waiting Room: Panopticon, Spectacle, Speculum 9. Modern Pessimism: From Naturalism to Symbolism Epilogue: Naturalism Is Dead, Long Live Naturalism!

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Book SynopsisFrom the internationally acclaimed artist, a stunning collection of portraits of ground-breaking women—Joan of Arc, Josephine Baker, Greta Thunberg, Misty Copeland, and many more history-making women whose names have been forgotten and are finally being brought to light. • With a Foreword by Roxane Gay. “This book, as a whole, offers the reader possibility and promise … You will be introduced to many of these women for the first time, because history is rarely kind to women until it is forced to be. You will learn about artists and activists, rulers and rebels.” —Roxane Gay, from the Foreword Original Sisters was born from the COVID-19 quarantine. In early March 2020, locked down in her home-studio in Toronto and longing for inspiration, artist Anita Kunz started researching women on the Internet. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but she soon found an array of astonishing people who had done amazing things—some of whom she had heard of, but most of whom she had not. And then she began to paint their pictures and write down their stories. The result is a jaw-dropping feat of historic and artistic research. The wide variety of lives, occupations, time periods, and achievements is absolutely mind-bending.   From Joan of Arc to Josephine Baker, from Hippolyta to Greta Thunberg, from Anne Frank to Misty Copeland: these women made and changed history. But there are just as many whom you’ve never heard of, who were never recognized in their lifetimes, whose achievements need to be brought to light. They include the anti-Nazi activist Sophie Scholl, who was executed at age twenty-one by the Third Reich, and Alice Ball, a young African American scientist who discovered a treatment for leprosy but died tragically before she could receive credit for it. This is not only a breathtaking art book. Original Sisters also recounts a secret history that must be told so that it is a secret no more.

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Book SynopsisThis book features 45 Cape Cod artists working in abstraction, displaying more than 400 images of their work. Based on her interviews with the artists, the author writes about their aspirations and approaches. The art, which include paintings, photographs, sculpture, and prints, show a range of approaches to abstraction, from those that include an interpreted element of the real world to others that are completely non-objective. Learn about the artists' lives, their inspirations, how they proceeded on the path to abstraction, and the ideas behind their works. Abstraction's place in art history is explored, as well as its relationships to other movements. The narrative gives insight into the creative talents of the artists and provides an understanding of abstract art in relationship to the world art scene.

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Book Synopsis#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A vibrant collection of oil paintings and stories by President George W. Bush honoring the sacrifice and courage of America’s military veterans. With Forewords by former First Lady Laura Bush and General Peter Pace, 16th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Growing out of President Bush’s own outreach and the ongoing work of the George W. Bush Institute's Military Service Initiative, Portraits of Courage brings together sixty-six full-color portraits and a four-panel mural painted by President Bush of members of the United States military who have served our nation with honor since 9/11—and whom he has come to know personally.     Our men and women in uniform have faced down enemies, liberated millions, and in doing so showed the true compassion of our nation. Often, they return home with injuries—both visible and invisible—that intensify the

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Book SynopsisA deluxe, signed edition of President George W. Bush’s collection of oil paintings and stories honoring the sacrifice and courage of America’s military veterans.  With Forewords by former First Lady Laura Bush and General Peter Pace, 16th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.    Growing out of President Bush’s own outreach and the ongoing work of the George W. Bush Institute's Military Service Initiative, Portraits of Courage brings together sixty-six full-color portraits and a four-panel mural painted by President Bush of members of the United States military who have served our nation with honor since 9/11—and whom he has come to know personally.  This deluxe, oversized edition of the book is signed by the President and cloth-bound with a specially designed slipcover.   Our men and women in uniform have faced down enemies, liberated millions, and in doing so showed the true compassion of our nation. Often

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Book SynopsisJonathan Black is a Senior Research Fellow in History of Art at Kingston University, UK. A Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, he became interested in the image of Churchill when studying the sculptor Ivor Roberts-Jones, who was responsible for the iconic statue of Churchill in Parliament Square.Trade ReviewJonathan Black is an art historian, and reading him is rather like visiting a major exhibition in the company of its curator. No such collection as this, embracing the work of painters, sculptors, photographers, and cartoonists, has ever been assembled before … Enjoyable though it is to browse through the pictures, the substance of the book lies in the text, which is both scholarly and original. * Journal of Modern History *Full credit to Jonathan Black for spotting a significant gap in the exhaustive, indeed excessive, literature on Winston Churchill: his changing image in art. This book admirably qualifies as "iconography" not only as art historians mean it ... but also as a scholarly yet page-turning study of a veritable twentieth-century icon ... I give Jonathan Black a V for Victory sign. * The Tablet *[A] brisk and enjoyable biography through images. * London Review of Books *Unreservedly recommended, not only to librarians, but as a fine present for a Churchill buff, or for that matter anyone interested in the perception of ‘The Greatest Briton of All Time’. * Cercles *This well-written, well-researched and beautifully produced book covers every conceivable angle in the relationship between Winston Churchill and Art, often in surprising and inspiring ways. I didn’t think there was anything new to be said about Churchill, but Jonathan Black has certainly managed it. * Andrew Roberts, Visiting Professor, King's College London, UK *The lure of the enigmatic and ever charismatic Winston Churchill, as seen through the eyes of Britain’s leading artists throughout the nation’s most turbulent century, and expertly collated and analysed here by Jonathan Black, makes this long-overdue study irresistible. * Michael J. K. Walsh, Associate Professor of Art, Design & Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore *In this definitive study Jonathan Black examines the myriad representations made of Sir Winston Churchill over the course of the 20th century and into our own era. Black cogently analyses this evolving imagery in relation to Churchill’s tumultuous political career and its aftermath, from his period as First Lord of the Admiralty during World War One to the struggle to define the ‘myth’ of Churchill following his death in 1965. This lavishly illustrated book is a wonderful and timely addition to the vast literature on the life and legacy of Winston Churchill. * Mark Antliff, Mary Grace Wilson Professor of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Duke University, USA *Table of ContentsIntroduction First Age: Young Winston, 1898-1909 Second Age: The Political Meteor, 1910-1915 Third Age: From Disgrace to Redemption, 1916-1929 Fourth Age: In the Wilderness, 1929-1939 Fifth Age: Finest Hour, 1940-1945 Sixth Age: Cold War Warrior, 1946-1955 Seventh Age: Twilight Years and Apotheosis, 1955-1980s Epilogue: Churchill in the 21st Century

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Book SynopsisWhere does the impulse to create originate? How does one cope with the highs and lows of the artist's life? What is the choreographer's responsibility to the dancers, the audience, the self? These are just a few of the probing questions that Rose Eichenbaum, a dancer turned photographer, asks 59 of America's most celebrated choreographers in her five-year quest to understand the secrets of creativity.A collection of photographic portraits and vignettes based on intimate conversations, Masters of Movement takes us on a rare journey into the world of dance, from the concert stage and Broadway to feature films and music videos. Whether through her lens or through the revelations emanating from her masterful interviews, Eichenbaum has succeeded in capturing the essential character of her subjects, who confide experiences and emotions that have driven their creativity and defined their styles.Masters of Movement will inform, empower, and inspire anyone on the creative path—and delight lovers of dance everywhere.

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Book SynopsisA remarkable collection of prison "portraiture" photosTrade Review"In a stimulating introductory essay accompanying this collection of extraordinary photographic portraits, Jackson (The Story Is True) recalls visiting in 1975 Arkansas's Cummins state prison farm, where an inmate invited him to fill his pockets with about 200 discarded prisoner identification photographs, likely dating from 1915 to 1940.... Shrewdly, Jackson balances their remarkable refurbishment with a strong sense of provenance (retaining staple holes and creases, for example), while eschewing any attempt to connect each haunting image with a particular crime or narrative. Given unprecedented and (from the perspective of their original purpose) utterly unintended scope, the human dimensions of these images grant each an irreversible dignity for the first time, while simultaneously taking on the essential characteristic Jackson names: they become 'mirrors' of ourselves." —Publishers Weekly"I'm intrigued by the portraits of these prisoners. These pictures all speak to me of another time not only because of the way the people are dressed, but also because of the direct simplicity and innocence of the images. Today, when so many photographs are altered and manipulated, the honesty and reality of these images make them stand out as powerful and true portraiture for all time."—Mary Ellen MarkTable of Contents1. Pictures from a Drawer; 2. Restoring the Eyes; 3. Size; 4. Dating the Images; 5. The Women; 6. Portraits; 7. Seeing People; 8. The Order of Things; 9. Mirrors; II.; Images; Appendix: Cooter's Yellow Pad

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Book SynopsisBobby Powers is a real life character out of a Nelson Algren or Hubert Selby novel, only he somehow survived and figured out since the only way left to go was up, he might as well try it.—Barry Gifford In 1998, at the very moment that a publisher had approached Bruce Davidson about a book of his 1959 Brooklyn Gang photographs, former gang leader Bobby Powers unexpectedly telephoned the Davidsons. Over the next decade, Emily Davidson maintained an ongoing conversation with Powers in order to bring to light his struggle to overcome his drug-ridden and violent past and to inspire others with his example.Through the words and reflections of the former drug addict and petty criminal, this book relates the long, agonizing journey from youthful urban violence and despair to the life of a committed and generous professional. Beginning in a working-class Brooklyn neighborhood in the mid 1950s where alcohol abuse and poverty were rampant, Bobby Powers went from being an illiterate gang leader and notorious drug dealer to a destroyed individual who had lost everything, including family members, close friends, and himself, all presented in his own words and in grim detail in this book. At a critical turning point in his life, recognizing the threat of his behaviors to survival, he entered detox and embarked on the arduous path to recovery and self-understanding. This process involved not only acknowledging and coming to terms with the injuries he had inflicted on his children and others, but also asking for their forgiveness.Having achieved a new way of life as a responsible and caring adult, Bobby Powers is today, at 69, a nationally respected drug addiction counselor who has aided a wide spectrum of people, including former gang members. His story represents a brutal and inspiring lesson in human frailty, degradation, and transformation.

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Book SynopsisEmpress Elisabeth of Austria (1837-1898), wife of Habsburg Emperor Francis Joseph I, was celebrated as the most beautiful woman in Europe. Glamorous painted portraits by Franz Xaver Winterhalter and widely collected photographs spread news of her beauty, and the twentieth-century German-language film trilogy Sissi (1955-57) cemented this legacy. Despite the enduring fascination with the empress, art historians have never considered Elisabeth’s role in producing her public portraiture or the influence of her creation. The Celebrity Monarch reveals how portraits of Elisabeth transformed monarchs from divinely appointed sovereigns to public personalities whose daily lives were consumed by spectators. With resources ranging from the paintings of Gustav Klimt and Elisabeth’s private collection of celebrity photography to twenty-first century collages and films by T. J. Wilcox, this book positions Elisabeth herself as the primary engineer of her public image and argues for the widespread influence of her construction on both modern art and the emerging phenomenon of celebrity. Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter One: Staging the State Portrait Chapter Two: Styling Authenticity: The Boundless Hair of the Celebrity Monarch Chapter Three: The Imaginary Empress: Photomontage and the Simulation of Intimacy Chapter Four: Elisabeth and the Modernist Imagination of Anton Romako Chapter Five: Sissi in New York: T. J. Wilcox and Elisabeth’s Descendants in the United States Endnotes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSince its first issue debuted with a Great Gatsby portrait of Mia Farrow, People magazine has delivered not only outstanding celebrity journalism, but also the best in personality photography. Now, the Editors of People present The 100 Best Celebrity Photos. From a Marilyn Monroe pin-up to an internet-breaking Kim Kardashian Instagram, from Harry Benson's exuberant snaps of The Beatles' first visit to America to Bradley Cooper's star-packed Oscar selfie, these are the images that influenced how we understand fame and glamor. Included with each picture is the story behind it: A-list photographers tell how they created the images that turned stars into icons, or made legends seem as relatable as family. Here also are People exclusives from the magazine's history of unparalleled access into celebrity homes and off-duty lives that show us the real side of the stars who most captivate and intrigue us.

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Book SynopsisWomen Who Are Changing the World

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