An attractive new hardcover edition of the classic biography of Tamara de Lempicka, whose paintings defined Art Deco and whose life epitomised the Jazz Age. As F. Scott Fitzgerald portrayed the mad glories of the 1920s on the printed page, Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980) captured them on canvas. A seductive Garbo-esque beauty with an irresistible force of personality, this refugee of the Russian Revolution successively conquered Paris, Hollywood, and New York with coruscating portraits of the world's rich and famous. Her Art Deco paintings earned for her a life more fabulously excessive than anything Fitzgerald dreamed of. Passion by Design, authored by Tamara de Lempicka's own daughter, is an intimate look at a fascinating personality, and remains the best account of her life and work. This new edition is illustrated with vibrant colour reproductions of her finest paintings, as well as exclusive photographs from family albums. An additional chapter by Victoria de Lempicka, the artist's granddaughter, explores the ever-evolving legacy of Tamara de Lempicka, from the record eight-figure price fetched by her painting La Tunique Rose in November 2019 to the new musical based on her life.

Local colour is an undertheorized notion. Although the expression itself is nowadays used in everyday speech in both French and English, its 'domestication' only further highlights the need for a clarifying study of this concept, which has come to be crucial in aesthetic debates. From the seventeenth-century rift between 'Poussinistes' and 'Rubenistes', to the genesis of Romanticist aesthetic theories in early nineteenth-century France, to the North American regionalist prose of the Local colour movement; from Roger de Piles, to Benjamin Constant, Victor Hugo, Prosper Merimee, and Hamlin Garland, this book sets out to map for the first time couleur locale's three-hundred-year journey across centuries, languages and genres. In addition to proposing a genealogy of the concept and the paths of its semantic evolution, it also initiates a reflection on the factors that could have prompted the mobility of the term across cultures, art forms and their metalanguages.

This richly illustrated books tells the story of the different ways in which women were represented in Italian Renaissance painting. It is clearly arranged into four distinct areas that relate to the function of the art work: marriage furniture, portraiture, the nude and depictions of female saints. Uncovering the many layers of meaning hidden in the iconography of these paintings, the book reintroduces us to the cultural context in which the artists operated, providing interesting new readings of well-known works by Raphael, Leonardo and Titian, among others. -- .

Water-mixable oil paints offer all the qualities of traditional oils – rich pigments, buttery consistency, long drying times – but with one remarkable difference, there is no need for solvents! This book will encourage and inspire beginners and provide them with all the skills and knowledge they need to produce successful oil paintings. It starts with an introduction to the medium, and explains what water-mixable oils are. This introduction is followed by several sections on materials, preparation (how to care for your brushes, storing your paints, and so on), colour (selecting your basic, or capsule, palette), mixing the paints and preparing your surfaces. The first project explains how to explore colour in order to paint in the style of Vincent van Gogh. There are then five longer projects that touch upon the themes of abstraction, still life, landscapes, buildings, and working from a photograph, all of which capitalize on the rich qualities of the paints.  Each project is accompanied by a clear list of materials needed as well as top tips and skills practised; Sarah also interjects with useful anecdotes and words of wisdom garnered from her experience working in this vibrant and exciting medium. At the end of the book, the reader discovers how best to store and transport finished paintings, especially if the paint is still tacky to the touch, and how to frame a painting for impact.

Painting, Politics and the Struggle for the Ecole de Paris, 1944-1964 is the first book dedicated to the postwar or 'nouvelle' Ecole de Paris. It challenges the customary relegation of the Ecole de Paris to the footnotes, not by arguing for some hitherto 'hidden' merit for the art and ideas associated with this school, but by establishing how and why the Ecole de Paris was a highly significant vehicle for artistic and political debate. The book presents a sustained historical study of how this 'school' was constituted by the paintings of a diverse group of artists, by the combative field of art criticism, and by the curatorial policies of galleries and state exhibitions. By thoroughly mining the extensive resources of the newspaper and art journal press, gallery and government archives, artists' writings and interviews with surviving artists and art critics, the book traces the artists, exhibitions, and art critical debates that made the Ecole de Paris a zone of aesthetic and political conflict. Through setting the Ecole de Paris into its artistic, social, and political context, Natalie Adamson demonstrates how it functioned as the defining force in French postwar art in its defence of the tradition of easel painting, as well as an international point of reference for the expansion of modernism. In doing so, she presents a wholly new perspective on the vexed relationships between painting, politics, and national identity in France during the two decades following World War II.

This interdisciplinary study examines painted portraiture as a defining metaphor of elite self-representation in early modern culture. Beginning with Castiglione's Book of the Courtier (1528), the most influential early modern account of the formation of elite identity, the argument traces a path across the ensuing century towards the images of courtiers and nobles by the most persuasive of European portrait painters, Van Dyck, especially those produced in London during the 1630s. It investigates two related kinds of texts: those which, following Castiglione, model the conduct of the ideal courtier or elite social conduct more generally; and those belonging to the established tradition of debates about the condition of nobility -how far it is genetically inherited and how far a function of excelling moral and social behaviour. Van Dyck is seen as contributing to these discussions through the language of pictorial art. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, cultural history, early modern history and Renaissance studies.

Collection of portraits, selected from public and private holdings by art historian Trevor J. Fairbrother, reveal the technical skill and intuitive eye for which American portrait painter John Singer Sargent is renowned. Drawings in pencil, pastels and charcoal-a lesser-known aspect of Sargent's oeuvre-are shown. List of Plates. Introduction. Captions.

In this beautifully produced book, artist and teacher David Webb shares his expertise to provide comprehensive guidance for anyone painting in watercolour, from beginners up. How-to techniques are at the heart of the book and feature detailed explanations and demonstrations that will get you progressing fast, with a real understanding of the medium. Included in this section are 'Help!' panels that focus on what can go wrong: the typical mistakes made and how you can avoid them. Readers will also discover the widest possible range of watercolour techniques thanks to our team of internationally recognised guest artists, who will be revealing some of their painting secrets in a series of 'life lessons' - how they appear to get the paint to really glow and their paintings to spring into life.

The history of collecting is a topic of central importance to many academic disciplines, and shows no sign of abating in popularity. As such, scholars will welcome this collection of essays by internationally recognised experts that gathers together for the first time varied and stimulating perspectives on the nineteenth-century collector and art market for French eighteenth-century art, and ultimately the formation of collections that form part of such august institutions as the Louvre and the National Gallery in London. The book is the culmination of a successful conference organised jointly between the Wallace Collection and the Louvre, on the occasion of the acclaimed exhibition Masterpieces from the Louvre: The Collection of Louis La Caze. Exploring themes relating to collectors, critics, markets and museums from France, England and Germany, the volume will appeal to academics and students alike, and become essential reading on any course that deals with the history of collecting, the history of taste and the nineteenth-century craze for the perceived douceur de vivre of eighteenth-century France. It also provides valuable insight into the history of the art markets and the formation of museums.

Originally published in 1998, The Handbook of Modern British Painting and Printmaking 1900-1990 has been designed for people who enjoy, study and buy British art. The only portable dictionary-style guide to the life and work of modern British painters and printmakers, the book provides information on some 2,000 artists, as well as entries on schools of art, on museums, galleries and collections, on societies and groups, and critics and patrons who have influenced the development of modern art in Britain. Compiled by scholars, the entries are cross-referenced and each concise biographical outline provides the relevant facts about the artist's life, a brief characterisation of the artist's work, and major bibliographic references. Wherever possible, one or two suggestions for further reading are cited.

While the Renaissance is generally perceived to be a secular movement, the majority of large artworks executed in 15th century Italy were from ecclesiastical commissions. Because of the nature of primarily basilica-plan churches, a parishioner's view was directed by the diminishing parallel lines formed by the walls of the structure. Appearing to converge upon a mutual point, this resulted in an artistic phenomenon known as the vanishing point. As applied to ecclesiastical artwork, the Catholic Vanishing Point (CVP) was deliberately situated upon or aligned with a given object - such as the Eucharist wafer or Host, the head of Christ or the womb of the Virgin Mary - possessing great symbolic significance in Roman liturgy.Masaccio's fresco painting of the Trinity (circa 1427) in the Florentine church of Santa Maria Novella, analyzed in physical and symbolic detail, provides the first illustration of a consistently employed linear perspective within an ecclesiastical setting. Leonardo's ""Last Supper"", Venaziano's ""St. Lucy Altarpiece"", and Tome's Transparente illustrate the continuation of this use of liturgical perspective.

Absolutely the most thorough guide to pastel materials and techniques ever assembled in a single volume, this is the book for anyone working with pastels, from beginners to experienced artists looking to develop more professional skills. Defining the pastel medium broadly-color in stick form to be used for drawing and painting simultaneously-the author creates works of sensuous textures and colors, ranging from subtle to intense. He uses traditional soft and hard pastels, as well as oil pastels and oil sticks, showing the effects produced by each in step-by-step demonstrations. Included are sophisticated ways to combine pastels with water, acrylic, alkyd gels, and oil paint for stunning mixed-media results.

The Watercolour Sourcebook is a compilation of four selected titles from the What to Paint series, chosen specially to illustrate the wide range of scenes and subjects that can be captured in watercolour. The works of four master watercolourists - Geoff Kersey, Terry Harrison, Peter Woolley and Wendy Tait - are brought together in a collection of 60 beautiful, detailed projects on the subjects of trees, woodlands and forests; landscapes; hills and mountains and flowers respectively. Each project results in a full painting that is accompanied at the end of the book by a full-size outline that can be copied and applied to the artist's own watercolour paper using tracedown paper and pencil. The Watercolour Sourcebook aims to provide a wealth of inspiration to the painter who struggles to decide upon their subject matter, and arms the artist with everything they need to know about what they're about to paint, from colour palette to useful techniques.

Discover the joy and versatility of watercolors with forty gorgeously illustrated lessons for any skill level. Watercolors are beautiful in their simplicity: a basic palette of paints, a few brushes, and nice thick paper will do the job. The medium is also beautiful, though, in its depths and complexities. Here, watercolor artist and instructor Emma Block focuses on techniques, materials, and lessons to help you explore new watercolor techniques, build creative confidence, and discover your unique style of painting. She'll show you--with clear, step-by-step instructions--how to paint everything from people, plants, and animals perfect for framing to patterns and washes perfect for stationery and housewares. The forty lessons cover useful topics like: * Quality materials and how they can elevate your craft * Color theory 101 to help you confidently create artwork all your own * A techniques glossary full of exciting new skills to learn * Tips for finding creative inspiration in your everyday life Note: For complete instructions on mixing hair colors (page 192), visit https://www.runningpress.com/articles/errata-note-watercolor-life/.

As one of the first books to treat portraits of early modern women as a discrete subject, this volume considers the possibilities and limits of agency and identity for women in history and, with particular attention to gender, as categories of analysis for women's images. Its nine original essays on Italy, the Low Countries, Germany, France, and England deepen the usefulness of these analytical tools for portraiture. Among the book's broad contributions: it dispels false assumptions about agency's possibilities and limits, showing how agency can be located outside of conventional understanding, and, conversely, how it can be stretched too far. It demonstrates that agency is compatible with relational gender analysis, especially when alternative agencies such as spectatorship are taken into account. It also makes evident the importance of aesthetics for the study of identity and agency. The individual essays reveal, among other things, how portraits broadened the traditional parameters of portraiture, explored transvestism and same-sex eroticism, appropriated aspects of male portraiture to claim those values for their sitters, and, as sites for gender negotiation, resistance, and debate, invoked considerable relational anxiety. Richly layered in method, the book offers an array of provocative insights into its subject.

Elisabetta Sirani of Bologna (1638-1665) was one of the most innovative and prolific artists of the Bolognese School. Not only a painter, she was also a printmaker and a teacher. Based on extensive archival documentation and primary sources — including inventories, sale catalogues and her work diary — Elisabetta Sirani provides an overview of the life, work, critical fortune and legacy of this successful Baroque artist. Placing her within the context of the post-Tridentine society that both inhibited and supported her, Modesti examines Sirani's influence on many of the artists studying at Bologna's school for professional women artists, as well as her significance in the professionalisation of women’s artistic practice in the seventeenth century. Beautifully illustrated throughout, Elisabetta Sirani focuses on women’s agency. More specifically, it explores Sirani’s identity as both a woman and an artist, including her professional ambition, self-fashioning and literary construction as Bologna’s pre-eminent cultural heroine.

In this book, Henrike Lange takes the reader on a tour through one of the most beloved and celebrated monuments in the world - Giotto's Arena Chapel. Paying close attention to previously overlooked details, Lange offers an entirely new reading of the stunning frescoes in their spatial configuration. The author also asks fundamental questions that define the chapel's place in Western art history. Why did Giotto choose an ancient Roman architectural frame for his vision of Salvation? What is the role of painted reliefs in the representation of personal integrity, passion, and the human struggle between pride and humility familiar from Dante's Divine Comedy? How can a new interpretation regarding the influence of ancient reliefs and architecture inform the famous "Assisi controversy" and cast new light on the debate around Giotto's authorship of the Saint Francis cycle? Illustrated with almost 200 color plates, this volume invites scholars and students to rediscover a key monument of art and architecture history and to see it with new eyes.

Vincent van Gogh's short, passionate life was driven by an almost unimaginable creative energy that eventually overwhelmed him. The outlines of his story - the early strivings in Holland and Paris, the revelatory impact of the move to Provence, the attacks of madness that led ineluctably to his suicide - are almost as familiar as the paintings. Yet it is more than possible that neither the paintings nor Van Gogh's story would have survived at all if it had not been for his remarkable sister-in-law, Jo van Gogh-Bonger. After Vincent's death and that of her husband, his brother Theo, Jo devoted her life to preserving and exhibiting the paintings, and editing the letters. It is in her short and unaccountably neglected biography that we can come closest to Vincent the man.

Catalogue and iconography of the extraordinary wealth of images of Sir Isaac Newton, both before and after his death. Sir Isaac Newton [1642-1727] is rare among figures of the past for the number of authentic paintings, engravings and images of him which survive. He was painted by some nine different artists in the latter part of his life, and after his death both portraits and sculptures continued to proliferate, the amazing demand for representations of his image demonstrating his immense fame. This iconography, lavishly illustrated in both colour and black and white, and involving the disciplines of History of Art and History of Science, catalogues 231 icons in two sections, and is thus an invaluable guide to the images. Part I contains 122 portraits and Part II 109 sculptures, about fifty of which were produced before his death, the rest from then until 1800.

This generously illustrated volume on the work of Rembrandt makes the world's greatest art accessible to readers of every level of appreciation. Celebrated for his penetrating portraits, richly detailed landscapes, and evocative narrative paintings, the seventeenth century artist Rembrandt is generally considered one of Europe's greatest painters and printmakers, and the master of the Dutch School. His work is distinguished by broad brushwork, luminous palettes, and a sense of order and movement that recalls the finest Renaissance art. Overflowing with impeccably reproduced images, this book offers fullpage spreads of masterpieces as well as highlights of smaller details--allowing the viewer to appreciate every aspect of the artist's technique and oeuvre. Chronologically arranged, the book covers important biographical and historic events that reflect the latest scholarship. Additional information includes a list of works, timeline, and suggestions for further reading.

No group of artists or period of art history has inspired as much fascination and admiration as the Impressionist school. This book tells the story of the revolutionary Impressionist painters and the dramatic times that shaped their vision. It examines the artistic trends from the early part of the 19th century to the shocking debut of Manet's Luncheon on the Grass, and examines the most important individuals in the history of Impressionism, including Pissarro, Manet, Degas, Monet, Renoir and Sisley. The expert analysis is augmented by over 350 illustrations, including the immediately recognizable images as well as rare paintings seldom seen in print.

Award-winning artist Harriet de Winton shows you how to create contemporary watercolour artworks to treasure and share. Through more than 30 step-by-step projects, discover how to paint individual flowers and foliage, as well as beautiful botanical compositions. Use your new skills to make art for your wall, unique cards, invitations, or simply paint for pleasure.

In Neo-Impressionism and Anarchism in Fin-de-Siecle France, Robyn Roslak examines for the first time the close relationship between neo-impressionist landscapes and cityscapes and the anarchist sympathies of the movement's artists. She focuses in particular on paintings produced between 1886 and 1905 by Paul Signac and Maximilien Luce, the neo-impressionists whose fidelity to anarchism, to the art of landscape and to a belief in the social potential of art was strongest. Although the neo-impressionists are best known for their rational and scientific technique, they also heeded the era's call for art surpassing the mundane realities of everyday life. By tempering their modern subjects with a decorative style, they hoped to lead their viewers toward moral and social improvement. Roslak's ground-breaking analysis shows how the anarchist theories of Elisee Reclus, Pierre Kropotkin and Jean Grave both inspired and coincided with these ideals. Anarchism attracted the neo-impressionists because its standards for social justice were grounded, like neo-impressionism itself, in scientific exactitude and aesthetic idealism. Anarchists claimed humanity would reach its highest level of social and moral development only in the presence of a decorative variety of nature, and called upon progressive thinkers to help create and maintain such environments. The neo-impressionists, who primarily painted decorative landscapes, therefore discovered in anarchism a political theory consistent with their belief that decorative harmony should be the basis for socially responsible art.

Diego Rivera (1886-1957) is a loud presence on the art historical stage. With devout political principles and a turbulent romantic history, he was at once husband and paladin of Frida Kahlo, advocate and adversary of Stalin's Soviet Union, and liberator and traitor of Leon Trotsky. Vibrant, graphic, and often monumental, Rivera's paintings carry the same live political and passionate charge as his personal biography. Fusing European influences such as Cubism with a socialist ideology and an exaltation of Mexico's indigenous and popular heritage, he created a new iconography for art history and for his country. He became one of the most important figures in the Mexican mural movement and won international acclaim for his public wall paintings, in which he presented a utopian yet accessible vision of a post-revolutionary Mexico. In 1931, Rivera was the subject of MoMA's second ever monographic exhibition. This book explores the unique blend of influence and ideology which secure Rivera's place as both a unique and a universal painter, bound to the particular turbulent experience of early 20th century Mexico, and yet preoccupied with subjects such as revolution and class inequity which continue to speak to us today. About the series Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

Painter, draftsman and engraver, Pierre Lesieur (1922-2011) was one of the most influential French artists of the second half of the 20th century. Trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris - where he took lessons from Andre Lhote - and at the Academie de Montmartre, he had his first exhibition in 1952. Lesieur's paintings of the 1950s are characterised by the use of brightly coloured areas, in line with the work of Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard. In the 1960s, this research bordered on abstraction, particularly in still lifes and representations of objects. From the 1970s onwards, through his paintings and drawings, Lesieur took a particular interest in interiors, as well as in portraits and female nudes. Early in his career, Pierre Lesieur was recognised as an important artist. After his first personal exhibition in 1952, his work was regularly shown at the Coard Gallery in Paris. From the 1990s, Lesieur's notoriety became international, resulting in further exhibitions in Japan and the United States. Some of his works are now housed in major museums such as the Center Pompidou, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Hiroshima Museum. Text in English and French.