This is an expert account of the Post Impressionist artist, Paul Gauguin, who defied convention and renounced European civilization to pursue his art in the South Seas. It explores the influences that defined his style, from Impressionist painters to the brilliant hues and primitive forms of the South Pacific Islands. It features a gallery ranging from his early Impressionist work to his vibrant pictures of a Tahitian idyll. Paul Gauguin was one of the most important artists of the early 20th century. This informative book outlines the artist's personal and working life, his work in France and his paintings of the tropical landscapes of Tahiti and the Caribbean. His mission became to depict an authentic primitivism; a method known as Cloissonism, a technique that was inspired by medieval enamelling: The Yellow Christ is a good example of this style. Another iconic work is Vision after the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel). This beautifully illustrated book is essential reading for those who would like to learn about this artist, and to view his works in one comprehensive collection.

Manet, Pissarro, Morisot, Cezanne, Seurat, Gauguin, Van Gogh and their colleagues made some of the most beautiful drawings in the history of art. This book sets drawings by the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists in the context of late nineteenth-century France and explains why these particular works are as important as their paintings in the representation of modernity. A new approach to materials and a wholly inclusive attitude to exhibitions gave drawings a more elevated status in this period than ever before, which avant-garde artists welcomed in their preference for scenes from contemporary life. For the first time also, painting and drawing shared the same stylistic principles of spontaneity, freer handling and lack of finish. Pastels by Degas, watercolors by Cezanne, pen-and-ink drawings by Van Gogh and mixed media works by Toulouse-Lautrec have an autonomy of their own, which proved instrumental in the development of modern art. The distinguished art historian Christopher Lloyd examines the drawings of twenty of the leading Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, highlighting an aspect of French avant-garde art that remains relatively unexplored and was of immense importance for the art movements that followed

Arguably the most important movement in the history of modern art, Impressionism changed the way audiences perceived painting. This elegant and portable book overflows with images and information about the movement's leading figures, tracing its development as different artists took up the challenge of redefining light and space in two dimensions, revealing the role of recent scientific discoveries, the changing landscape of Paris, and how audiences reacted to this seismic shift. The work of Manet, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Caillebotte, Degas, Morisot, Seurat and others are given special attention, with generous, full-page illustrations of their masterpieces. Chronologically arranged, the book provides important biographical detail on the aritsts and describes historic events in the context of the latest scholarship. It also includes suggestions for further reading.

This Mini Sticky Book is a portable hardcover containing a full-colour sticky notepad for easy note and list-taking at home or on the road. durable, pocket-sized, hardcover book cardstock and fabric inside pocket for business cards, cash, receipts, stamps, etc. 130 full-colour illustrated note sheets book measures 127 x 89mm. We choose the best images from well-known classic and contemporary fine artists, plus talented emerging illustrators and designers from around the globe. Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) had an artistic career lasting only ten years. However, in those years he left behind an astounding legacy of painting that has endured to this day. He was a mad genius and he poured that passion into the trembling energy of his paintings. His canvases are celebrations of humanity & earth, colour & texture.

This is an expert and detailed account of the painter Claude Monet, one of the key founders of the Impressionist movement and arguably the most influential painter of modern times. It is an insightful biography that tells the story of his life, the historical context of society at the time, and his relationships with Renoir, Sisley and Manet. It features a beautiful gallery of all Claude Monet's most significant works accompanied by in-depth analysis of his style and technique, stunningly illustrated with 500 beautiful images. It explores his relationship with the traditional art world and his courageous rejection of it, choosing to establish a new form of art. The first half of this impressive book is a review of the life of Claude Monet and the development of his talents. It follows his early experiences and artistic education, as well as his personal life, financial difficulties and marriages, shedding light on why Monet became the painter he did. The second half is a gallery of more than 300 of his works with analysis of each painting. Paintings are reproduced from all phases of his career, including when he lived at Argenteuil, where some of the most famous impressionist works were created. This extraordinary book is an essential volume for anyone wanting to learn more about this fascinating and ground-breaking artist, and to study his greatest works in one beautiful collection.

Celebrates one of the giants of French Impressionism with luxurious, large-format images Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was one of the founders of Impressionism and a friend of Monet, Pissarro and Sisley. He worked side-by-side with Monet on the banks of the Seine, sharing his concern with light and colour, but landscape painting never displaced his enduring love of figure painting. Delighting in the ample curves of the nudes he painted increasingly frequently in his later years, Renoir was also a master at capturing the spirit of Parisian life. His art is filled with optimism - his lifelong philosophy was that he painted because it gave him pleasure, and he shares that pleasure with those who see his work. It is almost always summer in his pictures, and in paintings like Moulin de la Galette, The Dance at Bougival and The Luncheon of the Boating Party he gives us an enduring record of contemporaries relaxing and enjoying their leisure.

Many people know that Vincent van Gogh (1853-90) was a 19th-century Dutch artist, a leading light of the Post-Impressionist movement who painted 'Sunflowers' and cut off his own ear. What, perhaps, they don't know is that he sold, in his lifetime, only one of the 2,100 artworks he painted; that, in 1998, his work 'Self- Portrait Without Beard' sold for $71.5 million; that he wrote over 800 letters; and that he sent that famous ear wrapped in brown paper to a brothel. Biographic: Van Gogh presents an instant impression of his life and work, with an array of irresistible facts and figures converted into infographics to reveal the artist behind the pictures.

The myth of Van Gogh today is linked as much to his extraordinary life as it is to his stunning paintings. His biography has often shaped the way that his self-portraits have been (mis)understood. Van Gogh. Self-Portraits reconsiders this aspect of his production and places the artist's self-representation in context to reveal the role it plays in his oeuvre. It also explores the power and profound emotion of these highly personal paintings. Van Gogh. Self-Portraits is the first time this theme has been exclusively addressed. Self-portraits painted during Van Gogh's time in Paris (February 1886 - February 1888) have been the subject of two exhibitions (in 1960 at Marlborough Fine Arts in London and in 1995 at the Kunsthalle in Hamburg) but never has the full chronological range been explored. The exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery, which this volume accompanies, features paintings from both the Parisian and Provencal periods. It brings together half of Van Gogh's thirty-five known self-portraits to examine the ways the artist approached this particular subject-matter. On a practical level, painting himself provided Van Gogh with the cheapest and most patient of models and represented an important conduit for stylistic experimentation. He also used self-portraiture as an homage to his illustrious Dutch predecessor Rembrandt, as well as a way of fashioning his own identity and presenting himself to the outside world. Of particular interest is the striking way the evolution of Van Gogh's self-representation over the short years of his artistic activity can be seen as a microcosm of his development as a painter. In addition to the world-famous Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear in The Courtauld's collection, the exhibition showcases a group of major masterpieces brought together from international collections, including the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Muse d'Orsay in Paris, the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others. This beautifully illustrated catalogue includes detailed entries on each work, an appendix illustrating all of Van Gogh's self-portraits and three insightful essays on the theme.

Many people know that Claude Monet (1840-1926) was a founder of French Impressionism, a master of landscape painting whose works include Impression, Sunrise and Water Lilies. What, perhaps, they don't know is that he created the ponds featuring those water lilies and spent 30 years painting 250 oils of them; that his water-lily work Le Bassin aux Nymphease sold in 2008 for $40 million; that his painting Cliffs Near Dieppe was stolen not once but twice; and that he was almost blind when he painted some of his most famous works. Biographic: Monet presents an instant impression of his life, work and fame, with an array of irresistible facts and figures convered into infographics to reveal the artist behind the pictures.

Impressionism captured the world's imagination in the late nineteenth century and remains with us today. Portraying the dynamic effects of modernity, impressionist artists revolutionized the arts and the wider culture. Impressionism transformed the very pattern of reality, introducing new ways to look at and think about the world and our experience of it. Its legacy has been felt in many major contributions to popular and high culture, from cubism and early cinema to the works of Zadie Smith and W. G. Sebald, from advertisements for Pepsi to the observations of Oliver Sacks and Malcolm Gladwell. Yet impressionism's persistence has also been a problem, a matter of inauthenticity, superficiality, and complicity in what is merely "impressionistic" about culture today. Jesse Matz considers these two legacies-the positive and the negative-to explain impressionism's true contemporary significance. As Lasting Impressions moves through contemporary literature, painting, and popular culture, Matz explains how the perceptual role, cultural effects, and social implications of impressionism continue to generate meaning and foster new forms of creativity, understanding, and public engagement.

Henry James criticized the impressionism that was revolutionizing French painting and fiction. He satirized the British aesthetic movement whose keystone was impressionist criticism. So why, time and again in important parts of his literary work, did James use the word 'impression'? Henry James and the Art of Impressions argues that James tried to wrest the impression from the impressionists and to recast it in his own art of the novel. Interdisciplinary in its range, philosophical and literary in its focus, the book shows the place of James's work within the wider cultural history of impressionism. It draws on painting, philosophy, psychology, literature, and critical theory to examine James's art criticism, early literary criticism, travel writing, reflections on his own fiction, and the three great novels of his major phase, The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl. It shows how the language of impressions enables James to represent the most intense moments of consciousness of his characters. It argues that the Jamesian impression is best understood as a family of related ideas bound together by James's attempt to reconcile the novel's value as a mimetic form with its value as a transformative creative activity.

The late 19th century in France represents an extraordinary period of artistic achievement in the history of Western art. The successive artistic revolutions of Realism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism are here charted through more than 300 biographies of the most important painters, sculptors, and graphic artists of the time. Extensive surveys examine the life, training, work, personality, and influence of the renowned leaders of each movement, from Millet and Courbet to Monet, Manet, Renoir, and Degas, and Cezanne and Gauguin. With further in-depth articles on the lesser-known artists, this dictionary is the most comprehensive and authoritative guide to one of the most popular periods of art.

The Grove Art series, focusing on the most important periods and areas of art history, is derived from the critically acclaimed and award-winning The Grove Dictionary of Art. First published in 1996 in 34 volumes, The Dictionary has quickly established itself as the leading reference work on the visual arts, used by schools, universities, museums, and public libraries throughout the world. With articles written by leading scholars in each field, The Dictionary has frequently been praised for its breadth of coverage, accuracy, authority, and accessibility.

Tracing the arc of van Gogh's career, this volume presents his portraits and self-portraits, landscapes, and haunting interiors. Readers will learn details of van Gogh's complicated personal life including his struggles with mental illness and his close but difficult relationship with his brother, Theo. Also included here are an anthology of paintings, information on the museums where they reside, a timeline of the painter's personal and artistic highlights, and bibliography. Overflowing with impeccably reproduced images, this book offers full-page 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.

The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles is art critic Martin Gayford's account of the tumultuous nine weeks in which the famous nineteenth century artists Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin shared a house in the small French town of Arles. Two artistic giants. One small house. From October to December 1888 a pair of at the time largely unknown artists lived under one roof in the French provincial town of Arles. Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh ate, drank, talked, argued, slept and painted in one of the most intense and astonishing creative outpourings in history. Yet as the weeks passed Van Gogh buckles under the strain, fought with his companion and committed an act of violence on himself that prompted Gauguin to flee without saying goodbye to his friend. The Yellow House is an intimate portrait of their time together as well as a subtle exploration of a fragile friendship, art, madness, genius behind a shocking act of self-mutilation that the world has sought to explain ever since. 'Gayford's fascinating depiction of the Odd Couple of art history is both moving and riveting' Daily Mail 'Masterly...a wonderfully alert and moving portrait' Mail on Sunday 'Profoundly absorbing. Gayford has reconstructed these tumultuous weeks...the reader lives them day by day, almost minute by minute. Delightful, utterly fascinating' Independent on Sunday Martin Gayford is a celebrated art critic and journalist who has written for the Spectator and the Sunday Telegraph and is the current Chief European Art Critic for Bloomberg. In his other book, Constable in Love: Love, Landscape, Money and the Making of a Great Painter, Gayford tells the true story of Romantic painter John Constable's life and loves.

No other artist, apart from J. M. W. Turner, tried as hard as Claude Monet (1840-1926) to capture light itself on canvas. Of all the Impressionists, it was the man Cezanne called "only an eye, but my God what an eye!" who stayed true to the principle of absolute fidelity to the visual sensation, painting directly from the object. It could be said that Monet reinvented the possibilities of color. Whether it was through his early interest in Japanese prints, his time as a conscript in the dazzling light of Algeria, or his personal acquaintance with the major painters of the late 19th century, the work Monet produced throughout his long life would change forever the way we perceive both the natural world and its attendant phenomena. The high point of his explorations was the late series of water lilies, painted in his own garden at Giverny, which, in their approach toward almost total formlessness, are really the origin of abstract art. This biography does full justice to this most remarkable and profoundly influential artist, and offers numerous reproductions and archive photos alongside a detailed and insightful commentary. About the series Bibliotheca Universalis - Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!

Bradford Collins has assembled here a collection of twelve essays that demonstrates, through the interpretation of a single work of art, the abundance and complexity of methodological approaches now available to art historians. Focusing on Manet's "A Bar at the Folies-Bergere, " each contributor applies to it a different methodology, ranging from the more traditional to the newer, including feminism, Marxism, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and semiotics. By demonstrating the ways that individual practitioners actually apply the various methodological insights that inform their research, "Twelve Views of Manet's "Bar"" serves as an excellent introduction to critical methodology as well as a provocative overview for those already familiar with the current discourse of art history. In the process of gaining new insight into Manet's work, and into the discourse of methodology, one discovers that it is not only the individual painting but art history itself that is under investigation. An introduction by Richard Shiff sets the background with a brief history of Manet scholarship and suggestions as to why today's accounts have taken certain distinct directions. The contributors, selected to provide a broad and balanced range of methodological approaches, include: Carol Armstrong, Albert Boime, David Carrier, Kermit Champa, Bradford R. Collins, Michael Paul Driskel, Jack Flam, Tag Gronberg, James D. Herbert, John House, Steven Z. Levine, and Griselda Pollock."

The Biographic senes presents an entirely new way of looking at the lives of the world's greatest thinkers and creatives. It takes the 50 defining facts, dates, thoughts, habits and achievements of each subject, and uses infographics to convey all of them in vivid snapshots. Many people know that Edgar Degas (1834-1917) was a French artist and leading light of Impressionism, whose paintings brilliantly capture the movement of ballet dancers. What, perhaps, they don't know is that by his mid-twenties he had made over 700 copies of other artists' works; that he produced 1,500 studies of ballet dancers, one of which sold in 1999 for over GBP17 million; and that, although Degas exhibited only one sculpture in his lifetime, 150 wax figures were found in his studio after his death.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's (1841-1919) timelessly charming paintings still reflect our ideals of happiness, love, and beauty. Derived from our large-format volume, the most comprehensive retrospective of his work published to date, this compact edition examines the personal history and motivation behind the legend. Though he began by painting landscapes in the Impressionist style, Renoir found his true affinity in portraits, after which he abandoned the Impressionists altogether. Though often misunderstood, Renoir remains one of history's most well-loved painters-undoubtedly because his works exude such warmth, tenderness, and good spirit. In an incisive text tracing the artist's career and stylistic evolution, Gilles Neret shows how Renoir reinvented the painted female form, with his everyday goddesses and their plump contours, rounded hips and breasts. Renoir's later phase, marked by his return to the simple pleasure of the female nude in his Bathers series, was his most innovative and stylistically influential, and would inspire such masters as Matisse and Picasso. With a complete chronology, bibliography, photos, sketches, and brilliant reproductions, this is the essential work of reference on this enduring master artist. About the series TASCHEN is 40! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. Today we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program-now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production.

A new look at the ways van Gogh represented the seasons and the natural world throughout his career The changing seasons captivated Vincent van Gogh (1853-90), who saw in their unending cycle the majesty of nature and the existence of a higher force. Van Gogh and the Seasons is the first book to explore this central aspect of van Gogh's life and work. Van Gogh often linked the seasons to rural life and labor as men and women worked the land throughout the year. From his depictions of peasants and sowers to winter gardens, riverbanks, orchards, and harvests, he painted scenes that richly evoke the sensory pleasures and deprivations particular to each season. This stunning book brings to life the locales that defined his tumultuous career, from Arles, where he experienced his most crucial period of creativity, to Auvers-sur-Oise, where he committed suicide. It looks at van Gogh's interpretation of nature, the religious implications of the seasons in his time, and how his art was perceived against the backdrop of various symbolist factions, antimaterialist debates, and esoteric beliefs in fin de siecle Paris. The book also features revealing extracts from the artist's correspondence and artworks from his own collection that provide essential context to the themes in his work. Breathtakingly illustrated and featuring informative essays by Sjraar van Heugten, Joan Greer, and Ted Gott, Van Gogh and the Seasons shines new light on the extraordinary creative vision of one of the world's most beloved artists.

This is an illustrated exploration of the artist, his life and context, with a gallery of 300 of his greatest works. It is a lively but expert account of Edouard Manet, one of the greatest French artists, whose striking realism has led to him being called the first modern painter. It is a vivid biography explores his life and career, including his break with established institutions and his links with artistic pioneers such as Monet, Cezanne and Degas. It features an extensive gallery of all Manet's most important works, accompanied by an analysis of his aims, style and technique. It focuses on how Manet turned the focus of artistic interest back to real life and away from the conventions of academic art. It is superbly illustrated with 500 pictures covering his life and art, along with works by his main contemporaries, including Monet, Renoir and Gauguin. Born to a wealthy conservative family, Edouard Manet became one of art's greatest revolutionaries, hailed by the Impressionists as their 'king'. While such works as Olympia or Music in the Tuileries struck contemporaries as shockingly candid, he himself revered the Old Masters.Manet's was the first great painter of modern Paris, the artistic capital of the 19th century. The first half of the book details Manet's life and his role as leader of the Batignolles group that included Renoir, Cezanne and Degas. The second half is a wide-ranging gallery of his finest works. With a total of 500 illustrations, this book gives a superb overview of one of the world's greatest and most original artists.

Across almost 50 years, Winston Churchill produced more than 500 paintings. His subjects included his family homes at Blenheim and Chartwell, evocative coastal scenes on the French Riviera, and many sun-drenched depictions of Marrakesh in Morocco, as well as still life pictures and an extraordinarily revealing self-portrait, painted during a particularly troubled time in his life. In war and peace, Churchill came to enjoy painting as his primary means of relaxation from the strain of public affairs.

In his introduction to Churchill: The Statesman as Artist, David Cannadine provides the most important account yet of Churchill's life in art, which was not just a private hobby, but also, from 1945 onwards, an essential element of his public fame. The first part of this book brings together for the first time all of Churchill's writings and speeches on art, not only Painting as a Pastime, but his addresses to the Royal Academy, his reviews of two of the Academy's summer exhibitions, and an important speech he delivered about art and freedom in 1937.

The second part of the book provides previously uncollected critical accounts of his work by some of Churchill's contemporaries: Augustus John's hitherto unpublished introduction to the Royal Academy exhibition of Churchill's paintings in 1959, and essays and reviews by Churchill s acquaintances Sir John Rothenstein, Professor Thomas Bodkin and the art critic Eric Newton. The book is lavishly illustrated with reproductions of many of Churchill's paintings, some of them appearing for the first time. Here is Churchill the artist more fully revealed than ever before.