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Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > 1600 to 1800
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Gainsborough (Paperback)
Loot Price: R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
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Gainsborough (Paperback)
Series: World of Art
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Loot Price R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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This is a fascinating look at an artist most famous for his
beautiful depictions of 18th-century aristocrats. But, as Vaughan
stresses, Gainsborough's elegance belies his painstaking
draughtsmanship and, although his portraiture is best known,
Gainsborough thought of himself primarily as a landscape painter
and his landscapes were important precursors of the Romantic era.
Vaughan's work charts Gainsborough's life from his youth in Suffolk
through training in London to his emergence as a society artist in
Bath and final return to London, where he received the recognition
of Royal patronage. Every chapter is lavishly illustrated with
Gainsborough's own paintings as well as those of his contemporaries
and influences. Vaughan also examines the key social and political
changes in Britain and shows how Gainsborough observed them keenly
and reflected them in his work. Although a Methodist and a
political conservative, Gainsborough seemed to thrive on
controversy. He never shied from an argument - and indeed had
several with the Royal Academy of Arts. Vaughan's discussion of
Gainsborough's methods of painting is particularly interesting. He
preferred to paint by very low light - in fact, when he painted
portraits the room had to be darkened so that he could first get
the general form before moving onto the detail. He was a master of
detail and painted people as they were rather than as they might
like to be. This is a scholarly and readable work, part biography
and social commentary and part art history. As well as the 172
illustrations (68 in colour) there is a useful bibliography and
details of collections containing Gainsborough's paintings. This is
an excellent introduction to Gainsborough's life and works, and
those familiar with 18th-century British painting will also find
much here to interest them. (Kirkus UK)
Gainsborough is one of the most appealing artists of the eighteenth
century. Renowned for such elegant portraits as The Blue Boy and
Countess Howe, he also pioneered a new form of landscape with a
moody sensibility that prefigured the Romantic movement. He was a
brilliant draftsman, and his art is full of inventiveness and
visual delight. William Vaughan draws on recently discovered
material to provide a fresh perspective on both the life and art of
this master. He shows how closely Gainsborough's innovative manner
can be connected to social and political developments in Britain,
in particular the celebration of original genius in a time of
burgeoning entrepreneurial commercialism. Above all, he
demonstrates how, beneath the artist's charm, there lay a bedrock
of shrewd observation and pictorial intelligence that gives his
work a value for all time.
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