This lavishly illustrated book records the high profile restoration of Rembrandt van Rijn's 17th century masterpiece, The Night Watch, one of the world's most famous paintings. Many questions about the creation of this work have been answered by extensive technical studies done in conjunction with the restoration. The popular Dutch TV program The Secret of the Master has documented the restoration of The Night Watch in four episodes, assisted in this by various external specialists. This book, by the producer of that series, reveals the many secrets of this fascinating and important work.

The perfect guide for any aspiring portrait artist, this book includes recipes for more than 500 skin tones using either acrylic or oil paints. Each page features a master-mix for a particular skin colour, plus recipes for all of its variations, such as highlights or shadows. The book covers a wide range of skin tones, from Caucasian to Latino and East Indian hues, and artists will also find recipes for a variety of hair, eye and lip colours. "Color Mixing Recipes for Portraits" includes a colour-mixing grid for measuring and is packaged in a concealed wire-o bound book that lies flat when opened, making this product convenient for any artist.

Known for his grand public murals, Diego Rivera (1886-1957) is one of Mexico's most revered artists. His paintings are marked by a unique fusion of European sophistication, revolutionary political turmoil, and the heritage and personality of his native country. Based on extensive interviews with the artist, his four wives (including Frida Kahlo), and his friends, colleagues, and opponents, The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera captures Rivera's complex personality--sometimes delightful, frequently infuriating and always fascinating--as well as his development into one of the twentieth century's greatest artist.

British painter William Tillyer (born 1938) is regarded as one of the most accomplished and consistently inventive artists working in watercolor. His work luxuriates in translucent color and sensuous brushwork. Some of his pieces, in their untrammeled expressive zeal and readily apparent love of color as a pure quality call to mind the canvases of Morris Louis; in other paintings, flamboyantly voluptuous shapes confront geometric abstractions and Minimalist blocks of color. With 224 full-color images, "William Tillyer: Watercolours" provides a comprehensive look at the titular aspect of Tillyer's oeuvre, looking back over nearly 40 years of work. It includes three texts by the American poet and art historian John Yau, an essay describing the development of Tillyer's watercolors and linking his work to the tradition of the English watercolor, an essay on the latest body of work and an interview with the artist.

Bob Jones Jr. founded the collection as an educational effort and opened it on the campus of the university named after his father in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1951. Those first 25 paintings included works by Bicci di Lorenzo, Luca Giordano, El Greco, and Tintoretto, and today the collection comprises over 400 paintings, as well as a wide range of sculpture, decorative arts, and antiquities. It is widely recognized among scholars as one of the finest collections of Renaissance and Baroque paintings in America, and a document of the revival of the taste for Baroque pictures in the mid-20th century. Erin Jones’s introduction provides an overview of the history of the various iterations of the Museum & Gallery, even as it looks forward to a new home in the centre of its community. Richard P. Townsend’s essay presents the most in-depth examination to date of Bob Jones Jr. as a collector, extensively using letters, invoices, and photographs to paint a picture of Jones hitherto not available. At the heart of the volume is the presentation of 55 paintings, featuring works by great European masters including Botticelli, Bouts, Cranach, Guercino, Jordaens, Preti, Reni, Ribera, Rubens, Tiepolo, and Zurbarán.

Arthur L. Guptill's classic Rendering in Pen and Ink has long been regarded as the most comprehensive book ever published on the subject of ink drawing. This is a book designed to delight and instruct anyone who draws with pen and ink, from the professional artist to the amateur and hobbyist. It is of particular interest to architects, interior designers, landscape architects, industrial designers, illustrators, and renderers. Contents include a review of materials and tools of rendering; handling the pen and building tones; value studies; kinds of outline and their uses; drawing objects in light and shade; handling groups of objects; basic principles of composition; using photographs, study of the work of well-known artists; on-the-spot sketching; representing trees and other landscape features; drawing architectural details; methods of architectural rendering; examination of outstanding examples of architectural rendering; solving perspective and other rendering problems; handling interiors and their accessories; and finally, special methods of working with pen including its use in combination with other media. The book is profusely illustrated with over 300 drawings that include the work of famous illustrators and renderers of architectural subjects such as Rockwell Kent, Charles Dana Gibson, James Montgomery Flagg, Willy Pogany, Reginald Birch, Harry Clarke, Edward Penfield, Joseph Clement Coll, F.L. Griggs, Samuel V. Chamberlain, Louis C. Rosenberg, John Floyd Yewell, Chester B. Price, Robert Lockwood, Ernest C. Peixotto, Harry C. Wilkinson, Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, and Birch Burdette Long. Best of all, Arthur Guptill enriches the text with drawings of his own.

This is the first publication that narrates the significant contributions of Greek women in the various genres of the arts in a historical perspective from antiquity to contemporary Greece. It discusses Greek women in the disciplines of music, the visual arts, poetry and literature, film and theatre, and history. The historical roles of Greek women in music are examined including the first woman composer with preserved music that is a Byzantine-Greek. Readers will discover that it was a Greek woman philosopher who influenced the formation of Socrates' thinking and that the Iliad and Odyssey were actually written by a Hellenic woman but were later appropriated by Homer. Classic and contemporary Greek female writers are in the foreground as well as the modern art music and popular music by Greek women composers. The roles of Greek women in drama are examined and the significant works of contemporary Greek women artists are recognized.

Without question, the tache (blot, patch, stain) is a central and recurring motif in nineteenth-century modernist painting. Manet's and the Impressionists' rejection of academic finish produced a surface where the strokes of paint were presented directly, as patches or blots, then indirectly as legible signs. Cezanne, Seurat, and Signac painted exclusively with patches or dots. Through a series of close readings, this book looks at the tache as one of the most important features in nineteenth-century modernism. The tache is a potential meeting point between text and image and a pure trace of the artist's body. Even though each manifestation of tacheism generates its own specific cultural effects, this book represents the first time a scholar has looked at tacheism as a hidden continuum within modern art. With a methodological framework drawn from the semiotics of text and image, the author introduces a much-needed fine-tuning to the classic terms index, symbol, and icon. The concept of the tache as a 'crossing' of sign-types enables finer distinctions and observations than have been available thus far within the Peircean tradition. The 'sign-crossing' theory opens onto the whole terrain of interaction between visual art, art criticism, literature, philosophy, and psychology.

Learn to capture the beauty and drama of the sky. A good sky is the essence of successful landscape and seascape paintings. This practical book covers everything you will need to know to paint a sky that captures the mood and atmosphere of a scene. With over 200 paintings, it explains techniques, demonstrates the painting process including step-by-step instruction on painting in oils with the alla prima technique. Advice is given on using alternative colours and creative interpretations and gives ideas to inspire and develop skills and a personal style. There is also detailed instruction on equipment, tone, composition and perspective and finally, practical advice on painting en plein air and travelling light.

First published in 1984. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries represent not only era of rapidly changing artistic methods but a crucial evolution in art criticism. This book gathers together a wide-range of the criticism that greeted the work of the Impressionists artists in the English Press. The selected examples of praise and antagonism reflect the sentiments expressed in the comments of prominent newspaper and periodical critics. The selection shows the importance of Impressionist art to English art criticism and wide comprehension of the formal qualities in painting. It also demonstrates how forward-looking critics created new criteria for the discussion of modern painting.

Winslow Homer was the antithesis of the unkempt bohemian artist of the nineteenth century. Yet he is ranked as one of America's greatest painters. The reason is not hard to discover, for Winslow Homer's powerful epic statements spoke for America with a breadth that few other artists have achieved. This is a lively, intimate, and immensely readable portrait of the artist that throws a new light on Homer's life and puts it in fresh perspective, concentrating on Homer's years at Prout's Neck on Maine's rugged coast, where he would create his finest paintings, from 1883 until his death in 1920.

In 1939, Scottish artist and sculptor J.D. Fergusson was commissioned to write a fully illustrated book on modern Scottish painting. The Second World War made this difficult and the first edition of Modern Scottish Painting was published in 1943 without illustrations. This new edition – edited, introduced and annotated by Alexander Moffat and Alan Riach – finally brings Fergusson’s project to fruition, illustrating the argument with colour reproductions of Fergusson’s own work. Moffat and Riach frame Fergusson’s important art manifesto for the 21st-century reader, illuminating his views on modern art as he explores questions of technique, education, form and what it means for a painting to be truly modern. Fergusson relates these aspects of modern painting to Scottishness, showing what they mean for Scottish identity, nationalism, independence and the legacy that puritanical Calvinism has left on Scottish art – a particular concern for Fergusson given his recurring subject matter of the female nude.

Creating beautiful botanical paintings has never been easier with these template outlines and art-quality watercolour paper. Perfect for absolute beginners in botanical art, the ready-to-use outlines allow you to focus on the painting and avoid the accuracy of composition drawings. Each outline includes a finished painting by artist Rachel Padder-Smith and a recommended colour palette, so all you have to worry about is enjoying the process! Included are step-by-step tutorials on all the essential tips and techniques you need to know, from painting different parts of the flower and shiny surfaces to perfecting the fine veins on leaves, as well as advice on how to correctly capture light. Rachel's stunning illustrations also include fruit and vegetables, so whether you're a lover of autumn leaves, spring daffodils, or even an onion or two, she has you covered. This detailed and visual art book is the perfect start for anyone looking to take up botanical art, refresh their skills, or simply appreciate the beauty of nature.

Portraits of Queen Marie Leszczinska (1703-1768) were highly visible in eighteenth-century France. Appearing in royal chateaux and, after 1737, in the Parisian Salons, the queen's image was central to the visual construction of the monarchy. Her earliest portraits negotiated aspects of her ethnic difference, French gender norms, and royal rank to craft an image of an appropriate consort to the king. Later portraits by Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, Carle Van Loo, and Jean-Marc Nattier contributed to changing notions of queenship over the course of her 43 year tenure. Whether as royal wife, devout consort, or devoted mother, Marie Leszczinska's image mattered. While she has often been seen as a weak consort, this study argues that queenly images were powerful and even necessary for Louis XV's projection of authority. This is the first study dedicated to analyzing the queen's portraits. It engages feminist theory while setting the queen's image in the context of portraiture in France, courtly factional conflict, and the history of the French monarchy. While this investigation is historically specific, it raises the larger problem of the power of women's images versus the empowerment of women, a challenge that continues to plague the representation of political women today.

This book attempts to expand the grounds and methodology of studying Japanese art history by focusing on the conditions, procedures, events, and social interplay that characterized the production of paintings in late-fifteenth-century Japan.
Though the book's ultimate concerns are art historical, its analysis also draws heavily from the insights of sociology and social history. At its core is a fresh examination of the major primary documents of the period in an attempt to liberate the study from assumptions long embedded in the historiography of late medieval Japanese painting history. Early chapters describe documents, methods, basic sites, and conditions of painting before turning to the main contribution of the book, painting considered as a body of social practices. The production of painting in the late fifteenth century was profoundly social, dynamically related to the circumstances of its agents. Painters, advisors, assistants, clients, and others did not exert themselves simply to bring paintings into existence. They sought advantages (such as wealth and prestige), met obligations, and satisfied the demands of custom.
Surviving documents from the period present rich evidence of the involvement of such persons in the imperial court, the Ashikaya-Gozan community, the great temples of Nara, and the halls of local lords. The author takes into account the patterns of expectation that existed at the various sites but does not construe them as static and mechanically determined. Rather, he shows that expectations evolved in response to changed conditions. Although this study specifically addresses the last quarter of the fifteenth century, it can aid future research in Japanese painting practice in other eras by serving as a model of how new interpretations can emerge from close documentary investigation.

The first specialized critical-aesthetic study to be published on the concept of hybridity in early Mughal painting, this book investigates the workings of the diverse creative forces that led to the formation of a unique Mughal pictorial language. Mughal pictoriality distinguishes itself from the Persianate models through the rationalization of the picture's conceptual structure and other visual modes of expression involving the aesthetic concept of mimesis. If the stylistic and iconographic results of this transformational process have been well identified and evidenced, their hermeneutic interpretation greatly suffers from the neglect of a methodologically updated investigation of the images' conceptual underpinning. Valerie Gonzalez addresses this lacuna by exploring the operations of cross-fertilization at the level of imagistic conceptualization resulting from the multifaceted encounter between the local legacy of Indo-Persianate book art, the freshly imported Persian models to Mughal India after 1555 and the influx of European art at the Mughal court in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The author's close examination of the visuality, metaphysical order and aesthetic language of Mughal imagery and portraiture sheds new light on this particular aspect of its aesthetic hybridity, which is usually approached monolithically as a historical phenomenon of cross-cultural interaction. That approach fails to consider specific parameters and features inherent to the artistic practice, such as the differences between doxis and praxis, conceptualization and realization, intentionality and what lies beyond it. By studying the distinct phases and principles of hybridization between the variegated pictorial sources at work in the Mughal creative process at the successive levels of the project/intention, the practice/realization and the result/product, the author deciphers the modalities of appropriation and manipulation of the heterogeneous elements. Her unique

This book awaited artist's manual is the first definitive sourcebook of its kind. In it, William Veasey teaches decorative decoy artists to accurately paint the details of waterfowl and gamebird bills and feet, as well as those of birds of prey. Bills and Feet is an authoritative work which will allow the craftsman to achieve a more lifelike effect with his carvings. Illustrated in full color, it is a must for the serious decoy artist.

This book reinterprets Wifredo Lam's work with particular attention to its political implications, focusing on how these implications emerge from the artist's critical engagement with 20th-century anthropology. Field work conducted in Cuba, including the witnessing of actual Afro-Cuban religious ritual ceremonies and information collected from informants, enhances the interpretive background against which we can construe the meanings of Lam's art. In the process, Claude Cernuschi argues that Lam hoped to fashion a new hybrid style to foster pride and dignity in the Afro-Cuban community, as well as counteract the acute racism of Cuban culture.

Waiting at the Shore chronicles the extraordinary life of the Spanish artist Luis Quintanilla, championed by Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Elliot Paul, and many other American and European writers and artists. In 1912, at the age of 18, he ran off to Montmartre where, under the influence of his fellow countryman Juan Gris, he began his artistic career as a Cubist. Returning to Madrid before the war he befriended prominent Spaniards, including Juan Negrin, the Premier during the Spanish Civil War. In April 1931 he and Negrin participated in the peaceful revolution which ousted the monarchy and installed the Second Spanish Republic. When civil war broke out Quintanilla helped lead troops on Madrid's Montana Barracks, which saved the capital for the Republic. "Because great painters," as Hemingway put it, "are scarcer than good soldiers," the Spanish government [Negrin] ordered Quintanilla out of the army after the fascists were stopped outside Madrid. The artist completed 140 drawings of the various fronts of the war which were exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern Art, with a catalogue by Hemingway. After the Republic lost the war Quintanilla was forced into an exile which lasted several decades. Living in New York and in Paris he strove to perfect his art, shunning the modernist vogues of the time. Although a celebrity when he first arrived in the United States he eventually fell into obscurity. This volume, which is heavily illustrated, brings him out of the shadows of neglect, and provides the compelling story of an artist who led not just an extraordinary life but left a legacy of paintings and drawings which, in both their skill and great imaginative variety, should be known to all art lovers.

This book focuses on the earliest surviving Christian icons, dated to the sixth and seventh centuries, which bear many resemblances to three other well-established genres of 'sacred portrait' also produced during late antiquity, namely Roman imperial portraiture, Graeco-Egyptian funerary portraiture and panel paintings depicting non-Christian deities. Andrew Paterson addresses two fundamental questions about devotional portraiture - both Christian and non-Christian - in the late antique period. Firstly, how did artists visualise and construct these images of divine or sanctified figures? And secondly, how did their intended viewers look at, respond to, and even interact with these images? Paterson argues that a key factor of many of these portrait images is the emphasis given to the depicted gaze, which invites an intensified form of personal encounter with the portrait's subject. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, theology, religion and classical studies.

Combining her passion for teaching with her mastery of both mediums, Camilla Damsbo Brix introduces budding artists to the whimsical beauty of watercolor, with the definition that ink offers, through 22 step-by-step floral compositions so exquisite they won’t believe how easy they are to make. Camilla gives insight into the respective fundamentals of ink and wash through basic techniques and preparatory sketches, where artists will learn crucial things like the difference between wet on wet and wet on dry, varying lines while inking, observational sketching of flowers and capturing harmonious floral compositions. Additionally, with a chapter entirely dedicated to sharing art with loved ones and with a larger artistic community, everyone will be well on their way to confidently and consistently blossoming in their practice. With Camilla’s gentle guidance, readers will be inking and painting classics like roses, lilacs and daisies, as well as annual beauties like dahlias, cosmos and sunflowers and lesser-known species like plumerias, gerberas and hellebores. This book has something for everyone, be it watercolor lovers trying to explore ink and vice versa, beginners wishing to grasp the intricacies of mixed media, or artists looking to strengthen their skills with elegant compositions they can proudly display. This book contains 22 projects and 22 photographs plus step-by-steps.

Award-winning artist Nita Engle's breakthrough approach to watercolor shows readers how to combine spontaneity and control to produce glowing, realistic paintings. Her method begins with action-filled exercises that demonstrate how to play with paint, following no rules. Subsequent step-by-step projects add planning to the mix, demonstrating how to turn loose washes into light-filled watercolors with textural effects achieved by spraying, sprinkling, pouring, squirting, or stamping paint. Engle's approach, and her results, are dramatic and dynamic; now watercolor artists can create their own exciting paintings with help from "How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself."

This practical guide is perfect for those looking to try this ancient art form for the first time! In this book, Japanese master artist Shozo Koike reveals the simple secrets of Sumi-e, offering step-by-step instructions with clear photographs and online video tutorials showing you how to paint 19 traditional subjects. Sumi-e is the meditative Japanese form of ink painting taught by Zen Buddhist monks to encourage mindfulness and an awareness of our surroundings. It uses only ink, water, a brush and paper to capture natural objects and landscapes in a vivid, spontaneous fashion. Koike begins with the basics--what to buy and how to prepare the ink in a traditional inkstone. Next, he shows you how to practice the 11 basic brushstrokes used for all Sumi-e paintings. The 19 traditional subjects taught in this book include: Flowers like orchids, chrysanthemums, camellias, roses and peonies Plants and fruits including bamboo, eggplants, grapes and chestnuts Animal figures including small birds, butterflies, chicks, crabs and goldfish Koike also explains the philosophy of Sumi-e, which emerges from the use of negative white space to enhance the painted forms. Readers will enter into a world not just of black and white, but of infinite shades of gray which are capable of evoking all the sensations of color using these techniques.