Originally published in 1940, this book presents the content of the Rede Lecture for that year, which was delivered by Sir Augustus Daniel at Cambridge University. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in art criticism and art history.

First published in 1909, this illustrated study considers the work of the artist and satirist William Hogarth (1697-1764), focusing on his depiction of London and its inhabitants. A devoted Londoner, Hogarth won great acclaim in his lifetime for the wit displayed in his many paintings and engravings. His work explored the many facets of London life, from the highest to the lowest social classes, from scenes of politics and business to churches, hospitals and prisons. Bibliographer, editor and prolific author, Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838-1917) places Hogarth's work in the context of the artist's background and early life. Wheatley's attention to detail complements the selected examples of Hogarth's work, providing a portrait of eighteenth-century manners as seen through the eyes of one of the most acute observers of the age. Several of Wheatley's other works, including London Past and Present (1891), are also reissued in this series.

Leon Battista Alberti was one of the most important humanist scholars of the Italian Renaissance. Active in mid-fifteenth-century Florence, he was an architect, theorist, and author of texts on perspective and painting. Leon Battista Alberti: On Painting is a cardinal work that revolutionized Western art. In this volume Rocco Sinisgalli presents a new English translation and critical examination of Alberti's seminal text. Dr Sinisgalli reverses the received understanding of the relationship between the Italian and Latin versions of Alberti's treatise by demonstrating that Alberti wrote it first in Italian and then translated it into a polished Latin over the course of several decades. This volume is richly illustrated to help demonstrate how Alberti understood optics and art.

William Holman Hunt (1827 1910) chronicled the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in this well-illustrated two-volume memoir of 1905, controversially presenting himself as the movement's founding father. Popular when first published, it illuminates the search for authenticity of treatment and depth of meaning in his own work and that of Millais, Rossetti and their circle. Stressing the contributions of himself and Millais, Hunt sets out to defend the Brotherhood's ideals, from which he never departed. After his success with The Light of the World, he survived exotic and dangerous travels to create some of the most memorable paintings of the age, such as The Scapegoat (mostly painted by the Dead Sea with a gun at hand) and The Lady of Shalott. Volume 1 shows him overcoming family objections and early criticism to pursue his artistic goals, finding common ground in the Brotherhood, winning Ruskin's backing and wider recognition, and making his first trip to the Holy Land.

William Holman Hunt (1827 1910) chronicled the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in this well-illustrated two-volume memoir of 1905, controversially presenting himself as the movement's founding father. Popular when first published, it illuminates the search for authenticity of treatment and depth of meaning in his own work and that of Millais, Rossetti and their circle. Stressing the contributions of himself and Millais, Hunt sets out to defend the Brotherhood's ideals, from which he never departed. After his success with The Light of the World, he survived exotic and dangerous travels to create some of the most memorable paintings of the age, such as The Scapegoat (mostly painted by the Dead Sea with a gun at hand) and The Lady of Shalott. Volume 2 covers his further visits to the Holy Land, unconventional remarriage and such later masterpieces as The Triumph of the Innocents. It culminates in a polemical 'Retrospect', linking art to nature, morality and national character.

First published in 1843 and reissued here in its expanded second edition of 1845, this biography represents an early and informed portrait of the prolific landscape artist and draughtsman John Constable (1776 1837). An upbringing in the East Anglian countryside and his first sighting of a painting by Claude Lorrain inspired his lifelong dedication to capturing scenes from nature, reflected in early works such as Dedham Vale (1802) and in his mature masterpieces, notably The Hay Wain (1821). Prepared by Charles Robert Leslie (1794 1859), a close friend and fellow member of the Royal Academy, this work is based principally on his collection of Constable's letters and papers, drawing also on friends' accounts of the artist. Illuminating his relationship with Maria Bicknell and the influence of early mentor Sir George Beaumont, the book details the development of Constable's career, revealing the nature of his opinions and anxieties.

During the seventeenth century, Dutch portraits were actively commissioned by corporate groups and by individuals from a range of economic and social classes. They became among the most important genres of painting. Not merely mimetic representations of their subjects, many of these works create a new dialogic relationship with the viewer. Ann Jensen Adams examines four portrait genres - individuals, the family, history portraits, and civic guards. She analyzes these works in relation to inherited visual traditions, contemporary art theory, changing cultural beliefs about the body, about sight, and the image itself, as well as to current events. Adams argues that as individuals became unmoored from traditional sources of identity, such as familial lineage, birthplace, and social class, portraits helped them to find security in a self-aware subjectivity and the new social structures that made possible the 'economic miracle' that has come to be known as the Dutch Golden Age.

This pioneering two-volume biography, first published in 1862, explores the genius of the groundbreaking Romantic landscape and historical painter J. M. W. Turner (1775 1851). As both journalist and historian, author Walter Thornbury (1828 76) has a light touch, yet he draws on a wide range of correspondence, sketchbooks, watercolours and etchings to give a detailed picture of Turner's artistic development and connections, and his increasingly eccentric character. Volume 1 traces the artist's progress from humble cockney beginnings, through youthful friendship and rivalry with Thomas Girtin and a stint as a drawing-master, to his establishment as a Royal Academician at the heart of the nineteenth-century art world. Thornbury sees Turner from all angles, covering his travels at home and abroad, his watercolour and printmaking techniques, his love of sea and sky and colour gradations, and even his fraught monetary dealings. The author also fully contextualises great works like Ulysses Deriding Polythemus and The Fighting Temeraire.

This pioneering two-volume biography, first published in 1862, explores the genius of the groundbreaking Romantic landscape and historical painter J. M. W. Turner (1775 1851). As both journalist and historian, author Walter Thornbury (1828 76) has a light touch, yet he draws on a wide range of correspondence, sketchbooks, watercolours and etchings to give a detailed picture of Turner's artistic development and connections, and his increasingly eccentric character. Volume 2 fills out the record by detailing the artist's relationships with patrons such as Lord Egremont of Petworth House, and such fellow Royal Academicians as the sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey. Among the topics covered here are Turner's love of poetry, dealings with buyers, miserliness (or otherwise), the tailing off of his powers, and his final mysterious metamorphosis into 'Admiral Booth'. Advised by Ruskin not to try to 'mask the dark side' of his subject, Thornbury presents a rounded but still admiring picture of his hero.

Over the course of his career, William Scott painted more than 1,000 works in oil, all of which are catalogued in this four-volume publication, which covers the artist's output from 1928 to 1986. Each work is accompanied by a catalogue note giving reasons for the dating together with any documentary material relevant to its history, much of it published here for the first time. An enormous amount of new information has been unearthed during the six years of research that has gone into this important project, research that not only reveals a great deal more than was previously known about the artist's life and work but also about how both these aspects of his career had a bearing on the wider context of contemporary British art. The artist's own papers and many previously unpublished letters and lecture notes have been made available by his family especially for this project. This landmark work will provide scholars and collectors with a vital tool for further research, and all lovers of Scott's art with a source of inspiration and insight.

Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, this is the biography of celebrated nineteenth-century artist Edward Burne-Jones, who - with William Morris - connects Victorian and modern art. 'A triumph of biographical art.' Independent 'Magnificent.' Guardian 'Rarely are biographies both as authoritative and engaging as this.' Literary Review The angels on our Christmas cards, the stained glass in our churches, the great paintings in our galleries - Edward Burne-Jones's work is all around us. The most admired British artist of his generation, he was a leading figure with Oscar Wilde in the aesthetic movement of the 1880s, inventing what became an iconic 'Burne-Jones look'. Widely recognised as the bridge between Victorian and modern art, he influenced not just his immediate circle but European artists such as Klimt and Picasso. In this gripping book, award-winning biographer Fiona MacCarthy dramatically re-evaluates his art and life - his battle against vicious public hostility, the romantic susceptibility to female beauty that would inspire his work but ruin his marriage, his ill health and depressive sensibility, and the devastating rift with his great friend and collaborator, William Morris, when their views on art and politics diverged. Blending new research with a fresh historical perspective, The Last Pre-Raphaelite tells the extraordinary story of Burne-Jones: a radical artist, landmark of Victorian society - and peculiarly captivating man.

A prodigiously talented artist, Sir John Everett Millais (1829 96) co-founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood with Rossetti and others, helping to revolutionise the Victorian art world. The minute realism of paintings like Christ in the House of His Parents, and his high-profile marriage to Ruskin's ex-wife Effie, were gradually accepted, and the iconic Ophelia was widely admired. Success as an illustrator also put him in the public eye, with the engravings market bringing him new wealth. With popularity came a return to more traditional forms in portraiture and landscape, inspired by Reynolds, Vel zquez and the Old Masters, although he also played off Whistler and the aesthetic movement. He became president of the Royal Academy in the last year of his life. His son, John Guille Millais (1865 1931), published this highly illustrated and acclaimed two-volume biography in 1899. Volume 2 applauds the freedom and breadth of treatment in Millais' later work.

The book contains a review of Patrick Hamilton's artistic career, from his beginnings with the series Project, - covering works of architecture, which began in 1996, two years before graduating from art school - to his most recent works. Driven by a desire to move painting onto another plane, Hamilton has created a body of work along object- and concept-based lines with a foundation in his interest towards cultural, historical and literary research. Using the starting point of Santiago, the city where he has lived and worked until recently, Hamilton has woven together countless works over a time period equivalent to a career that has now lasted nearly twenty years. The visual metaphors, popular myths and historical events in them are given form in an impeccable conceptual and visual presentation, which he uses to look for answers to all of the questions which arise on a daily basis in the society of which he forms a part as a citizen and artist. His work takes place mainly in the field of photography, collage, objects and installations and includes a reflection on the concepts of work, inequality, architecture and history - particularly of Chile post-dictatorship. In this sense it is an aesthetic reflection on the consequences of the 'neoliberal revolution' implanted in Chile during the '80s and its projection in the social and cultural field from then until now. Patrick Hamilton (Leuven, Belgium, 1974) has a degree in Art from the University of Chile. He received a Guggenheim fellowship in 2007. He has had exhibitions at numerous international institutions and has taken part in the Venice Biennale with Chile. He lives and works in Madrid.

The celebrated Victorian narrative painter William Powell Frith (1819-1909) was a born raconteur. His two-volume autobiography of 1887 ran to three editions in the same year. The third edition is reissued here, together with its supplementary volume of 1888. Frith was an ideal commentator on his age. He never lost his early interest in literary and historical subjects, and moved in the highest artistic and literary circles. Yet he also saw himself as a man of the people. His most famous works were his 'modern-life' panoramas, Ramsgate Sands (1854), Derby Day (1858) and The Railway Station (1862). Discussing such projects, he reflects on everything from costume to portraiture, art dealers to female artists, and even picture frames. Volume 1 covers his childhood, training, friendships with Dickens and others, and the phenomenal success of his first crowd scenes, up to and including The Marriage of the Prince of Wales (1865).

The celebrated Victorian narrative painter William Powell Frith (1819-1909) was a born raconteur. His two-volume autobiography of 1887 ran to three editions in the same year. The third edition is reissued here, together with its supplementary volume of 1888. Frith was an ideal commentator on his age. He never lost his early interest in literary and historical subjects, and moved in the highest artistic and literary circles. Yet he also saw himself as a man of the people. His most famous works were his 'modern-life' panoramas, Ramsgate Sands (1854), Derby Day (1858) and The Railway Station (1862). Discussing such projects, he reflects on everything from costume to portraiture, art dealers to female artists, and even picture frames. In Volume, 2 Frith discusses his Hogarthian subjects, 'Dickens and his Beard' (the story behind the famous portrait), and his last great crowd scene, A Private View at the Royal Academy (1883).

The celebrated Victorian narrative painter William Powell Frith (1819-1909) was a born raconteur. His two-volume autobiography of 1887 ran to three editions in the same year. The third edition is reissued here, together with its supplementary volume of 1888. Frith was an ideal commentator on his age. He never lost his early interest in literary and historical subjects, and moved in the highest artistic and literary circles. Yet he also saw himself as a man of the people. His most famous works were his 'modern-life' panoramas, Ramsgate Sands (1854), Derby Day (1858) and The Railway Station (1862). Discussing such projects, he reflects on everything from costume to portraiture, art dealers to female artists, and even picture frames. In particular, Volume 3 records the breakdown of the talented Richard Dadd, Frith's admiration for Daniel Maclise, John Tenniel and George du Maurier, and reflections on the vagaries of fashions in art.

First published in 1913, this highly illustrated two-volume work was intended to give as full an account as possible of the lives and works of painters, sculptors and engravers in Ireland from the earliest times to the nineteenth century. Until then, the history of Irish art had been largely neglected, so this project was an extensive undertaking for Walter George Strickland (1850 1928), who became Director of the National Gallery of Ireland. It took him two decades to compile, and involved accessing private collections, corresponding with experts, meeting with the artists' descendants, and consulting letters, diaries and notes relating to their works. Volume 1 covers artists with surnames beginning A to K. Each entry contains biographical information on the artist and details of their works, with portraits and examples provided in hundreds of plates. This unique reference work remains of great interest to art historians and historians of Ireland.

First published in 1913, this highly illustrated two-volume work was intended to give as full an account as possible of the lives and works of painters, sculptors and engravers in Ireland from the earliest times to the nineteenth century. Until then, the history of Irish art had been largely neglected, so this project was an extensive undertaking for Walter George Strickland (1850 1928), who became Director of the National Gallery of Ireland. It took him two decades to compile, and involved accessing private collections, corresponding with experts, meeting with the artists' descendants, and consulting letters, diaries and notes relating to their works. Volume 2 covers artists with surnames beginning L to Z. Each entry contains biographical information on the artist and details of their works, with portraits and examples provided in hundreds of plates. This unique reference work remains of great interest to art historians and historians of Ireland.

How did Victorians, as creators and viewers of images, visualize the politics of franchise reform? This study of Victorian art and parliamentary politics, specifically in the 1840s and 1860s, answers that question by viewing the First and Second Reform Acts from the perspectives offered by Ruskin's political theories of art and Bagehot's visual theory of politics. Combining subjects and approaches characteristic of art history, political history, literary criticism and cultural critique, Picturing Reform in Victorian Britain treats both paintings and wood engravings, particularly those published in Punch and the Illustrated London News. Carlisle analyzes unlikely pairings - a novel by Trollope and a painting by Hayter, an engraving after Leech and a high-society portrait by Landseer - to argue that such conjunctions marked both everyday life in Victorian Britain and the nature of its visual politics as it was manifested in the myriad heterogeneous and often incongruous images of illustrated journalism.

Today we view Cezanne as a monumental figure, but during his lifetime (1839-1906), many did not understand him or his work. With brilliant insight, drawing on a vast range of primary sources, Alex Danchev tells the story of an artist who was never accepted into the official Salon: he was considered a revolutionary at best and a barbarian at worst, whose paintings were unfinished, distorted and strange. His work sold to no one outside his immediate circle until his late thirties, and he maintained that 'to paint from nature is not to copy an object; it is to represent its sensations' - a belief way ahead of his time, with stunning implications that became the obsession of many other artists and writers, from Matisse and Braque to Rilke and Gertrude Stein. Beginning with the restless teenager from Aix who was best friends with Emile Zola at school, Danchev carries us through the trials of a painter tormented by self-doubt, who always remained an outsider, both of society and the bustle of the art world. Cezanne: A Life delivers not only the fascinating days and years of the visionary who would 'astonish Paris with an apple', with interludes analysing his self-portraits - but also a complete assessment of Cezanne's ongoing influence through artistic imaginations in our own time. He is, as this life shows, a cultural icon comparable to Marx or Freud.

The definitive monograph on the iconoclastic painter George Condo. With his arresting, unsettling style, George Condo emerged out of the dynamism of the New York art scene in the early 1980s, and he has been restlessly painting, drawing and sculpting - bringing forms into the world in one way or another - ever since. With his 'fake' Old Masters, reconfigured Manets, impossibly intricate paintings that seem abstract only from a distance, fractured and multifaceted 'psychologically Cubist' portraits, and the orgiastic misdemeanours of a host of butlers, bankers and priests, Condo has invented, mastered and expanded not just one painterly language but an entire lexicon. Working closely with Condo, Simon Baker has combined biographical, chronological and thematic approaches to survey the artist's work and career to date. An introductory essay on Condo's contradictory nature and a chapter exploring his phenomenal early career are followed by three thematic chapters that look at the years from 1984 to the present, tracing Condo's systematic reconstruction of the techniques of painting, exploring his relationship to the concept of abstraction, and probing the darker side of his psychological iconography in drawing, painting, sculpture and writing. George Condo is the definitive monograph about a unique artist that will appeal to artists, art students and those with a general interest in art.