The first biography of the scientist, artist and man of letters Clarence Bicknell. Fascinating for those interested in Arts & Crafts design, the natural sciences, archaeology and the Victorian Age of Enlightenment. 2018 is the centenary of Clarence Bicknell's death; it is being marked by events in Italy, France and the UK. A treasure trove of research discoveries enlightens Valerie Lester's biography of the captivating scientist and artist, Clarence Bicknell. Over 5 years, Lester has pored over hundreds of newly-discovered letters, botanical watercolours and arts-and-crafts designs in archives including the Natural History Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the Conservatoire Botanique in Geneva and Genoa University. Every letter and diary entry provides Lester with Clarence's voice; and each of his vellum-bound albums reveals drawings, watercolours and whimsical creations. The biography's text, supported by more than 200 images, gives remarkable insights into how and why this man strove for perfection in each subject he tackled. Clarence was a product of the late-Victorian Enlightenment, of the desire to understand our world and the quest to express it all creatively. Having lived for forty years in Bordighera on the Italian coast and spent summers at Casterino by the Vallee des Merveilles, now in France, he is a respected historical figure on both the French and Italian sides of the Riviera and the Maritime Alps. The irrepressible former clergyman dedicated himself first to botany, then archaeology in the high mountains and, towards the end of his life, to botanical art tinged with the whimsy of humour, narrative, affection for his friends and arts-and-crafts originality.

The rural idyll is a powerful force in the British national imagination. This highly original and vibrant study will examine how key moments in art history have shaped the concept of the idyll and how contemporary artists continue to access and often challenge this concept. From High Art to propaganda, garden centres to air fresheners, contemporary art to computer games - a constellation of powerful images and ideas contribute to our understandings of the rural. This publication offers new ways of thinking about the rural idyll and the countryside more broadly, through the innovative integration of a wide range of art and visual cultures. These include classic landscapes by artists such as Blake, Claude, Constable and Turner, works of modern British art, and contemporary works by artists who present new perspectives on the rural idyll. Crucially, this volume will enter these familiar and unfamiliar art works into a productive dialogue with an extensive range of visual cultures which populate everyday life now and in the past, for instance Frank Newbould's iconic wartime recruitment posters of 1942-44 and rural-themed video games. In the contemporary art world the rural is seriously under-represented as an arena of critical inquiry and artistic production. This publication will make a significant contribution towards redressing this situation. In addition to the new scholarship on the rural idyll - by academic experts from a wide range of disciplines, encompassing the spheres of art history, contemporary art, poetry, literature, rural history, agriculture, and everyday life - it will include interviews with ten key contemporary artists who are working with the rural in innovative ways. It will also contain newly commissioned material from leading artists and writers which articulate the themes of the publication in ways that differ from the traditional catalogue essay. It will include a specially commissioned visual essay by Jeremy Deller. Deller will select a series of images from the exhibition and elsewhere and combine them with short pieces of text that develop the questions and themes discussed throughout the book in creative and open-ended visual dialogue. There will also be a new commission from the Scottish poet and writer Kathleen Jamie, whose moving observations on the relationships between nature and everyday life, articulate the embeddedness of the rural idyll into the mundane and the quotidian.

A beautiful overview of fascinating paintings of the classical world and the Holy Land by a beloved American artist Frederic Church (1826-1900), one of the leading painters of 19th-century America and the Hudson River School, also journeyed around the globe to find fresh inspiration for his highly detailed compositions. Among Church's lesser-known masterpieces are his paintings of the Middle East, Italy, and Greece, produced in the late 1860s through late 1870s, which explore themes of human history and achievement. Taking a closer look at this geographical and thematic shift in Church's practice, this handsome book brings together the artist's major paintings of Athens, Rome, Jerusalem, and the surrounding region. The essays concentrate on a set of six major paintings of architectural and archaeological marvels; one essay also spotlights Olana, Church's home in New York State, which reflects the influence of Middle Eastern design. This impressive volume stands apart in its new approach to the artist's work and its quest to determine why and how this quintessentially American figure was drawn to scenery and themes from the other side of the globe.

Perfect for display or close observation, the posters in this elegantly produced collection of Ernst Haeckel's exquisite illustrations of natural forms demonstrate his exceptional artistry. Biologist, physician, philosopher, and artist, Ernst Haeckel was also a prescient observer of the natural world. His highly detailed and expertly rendered illustrations, first published at the turn of the 20th century, are not only beautiful works of art, but also have scientific underpinnings. Now available as a series of large format posters sumptuously printed and suitable for framing, Haeckel's most elaborate and captivating works illustrate his fundamental notion of the unity of all living things. From otherworldly radiolaria to psychedelic sea anemones, Haeckel's science and artistry continue to provide inspiration for 21st-century illustrators, architects, graphic designers, and anyone interested in exploring nature's perfect geometry.

In the richest collection of the State Hermitage we may find answers to many questions. Even to such as these: how did people of ancient civilizations imagine the sea? How did they express in myths and artworks their awe of the profound? What invariably attracts artists in it? The story how miracles could get along with practical considerations in the minds of ancient Greeks and Romans is told in the works of sculpture, jewellery and coins. Desire to achieve material success preserving at the same time one's moral bearings is expressed in the paintings that belong to the golden age of Holland. The art of the 19th-20th centuries eloquently shows the erasing of border between reality and creative insight. The album includes more than 250 illustrations with brief commentaries.

French patinter and illustrator Bernard Durin (1940-1988) discovered the beauty of insects for himself and for his art during a walk in Provence in 1972. During the following decades he made around 60 portraits of insects, using rare and fascinating specimens entrusted to him by the etymologists of the Museum of Natural History in Paris. Superior in detail to photography and highly esteemed by natural scientists and art lovers alike, 48 of these portraits adorn this book. Going far beyond the centuries-old tradition of documentary representations of animals, Durin succeeded in portraying each insect as an "individual personality." Gerhard scherer wrote the introduction and the texts accompanying the plates.

Landscape is probably the most popular type of painting, but anyone who has ever been disappointed by vacation photographs knows how difficult it is to turn a view into a picture. This book shows how artists in past centuries translated outdoor space and light into paint, and how landscape imagery evolved from mere ornament into a visual metaphor of the human condition. The story is told from its beginnings in Roman mural decoration, through the Renaissance transformation of landscape into a vehicle for feelings and ideas, to the Impressionist revolution and beyond. The continuing relevance of art to how we see the world, and our place in it, is demonstrated through a practical discussion of optics of real and painted landscape, illustrated with works from the National Gallery, London.

This vibrant and entrancing book invites readers on a journey around the world. Artist and globetrotter Shirin Sahba celebrates the diversity of people, places, and traditions, and revels in the joy of the journey itself. In exquisitely detailed paintings, she captures fleeting moments and small treasures-a brightly colored sari fluttering in the breeze, a mother and child enjoying gelatos on a hot Italian day, the mesmerizing pattern of an antique Chinese carpet. Along the way, the artist shares reflections, inspirations, and stories, immersing readers in each new landscape. Packaged in a petite square and featuring a shimmering foil-stamped cover, this book makes a special gift for nomads, graduates, retirees, or anyone setting off in search of their own new horizons.

The Life Line, a thrilling scene of rescue on stormy seas, firmly established Winslow Homer (1836-1910) as one of the leading American painters of his day, and one of the foremost maritime artists of all time. Combining a close analysis of Homer's masterpiece with an engaging look at the history of images of disaster and rescue in art and popular culture, Shipwreck! explores the making and meaning of an iconic American work of art. Kathleen A. Foster locates The Life Line within the tradition of shipwreck paintings from the 17th century onward, as well as in relation to Homer's earlier work, which also featured themes of disaster, suspense, and salvation. This intriguing book presents new research that tracks Homer's delicate management of the figures' erotic embrace, and traces how the artist was influenced by popular contemporary images of drowning, rescue, and mourning as well as the development of new life-saving technologies.