Description

Book Synopsis
An extraordinary collection of essays on the great masters of nineteenth- and twentieth-century art—from the Booker Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Sense of an Ending.

“An engaging and empathetic volume.” —The New York Times Book Review

As Julian Barnes notes: “Flaubert believed that it was impossible to explain one art form in terms of another, and that great paintings required no words of explanation. Braque thought the ideal state would be reached when we said nothing at all in front of a painting … But it is a rare picture that stuns, or argues, us into silence. And if one does, it is only a short time before we want to explain and understand the very silence into which we have been plunged.”

This is the exact dynamic that informs his new book. In his 1989 novel A History of the World in 10½ Chapters, Barnes had a chapter on Géricault’s The Raft of the Medus

Keeping an Eye Open Essays on Art Vintage

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    A Paperback / softback by Julian Barnes

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    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Tue 15 Sep 2026.

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      Book details

      Publisher Random House USA Inc
      Published 13 June 2017
      ISBN-13 9781101873373
      978-1101873373
      ISBN-10 110187337X
      Also in:
      Individual artists, art monographs The Arts: techniques and principles Painting, drawing and art manuals Books by Julian Barnes

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      An extraordinary collection of essays on the great masters of nineteenth- and twentieth-century art—from the Booker Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Sense of an Ending.

      “An engaging and empathetic volume.” —The New York Times Book Review

      As Julian Barnes notes: “Flaubert believed that it was impossible to explain one art form in terms of another, and that great paintings required no words of explanation. Braque thought the ideal state would be reached when we said nothing at all in front of a painting … But it is a rare picture that stuns, or argues, us into silence. And if one does, it is only a short time before we want to explain and understand the very silence into which we have been plunged.”

      This is the exact dynamic that informs his new book. In his 1989 novel A History of the World in 10½ Chapters, Barnes had a chapter on Géricault’s The Raft of the Medus

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