This groundbreaking publication, a companion to Van Gogh at Work, shows how the artist experimented with an enormous range of materials and techniques in his paintings and drawings. The result of an extensive research project carried out by the Van Gogh Museum, Shell, and the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage, we learn of the artist's decisions to work with certain supports, priming layers, pigments, and inks, all of which had a profound effect on his final works. Also included are vast amounts of new information concerning van Gogh's resources, working conditions, and methods as well as potential influences on his work. Presented in detail is an overview of art that Van Gogh saw in exhibitions, handbooks he was able to acquire, and the materials and tools available at the time. The combination of art historical, scientific, and technical knowledge provides a better sense of how Van Gogh's artwork originally looked, encouraging reconsideration of future conservation efforts.

Dürer and Beyond presents a selection of 100 works from the Metropolitan Museum's outstanding collection of German, Swiss, Austrian, and Bohemian drawings. Featured are numerous drawings by Albrecht Dürer, including his celebrated study sheet with a self-portrait. In addition to drawings by major artists such as Martin Schongauer, Albrecht Altdorfer, Urs Graf, Hans Holbein the Younger, Friedrich Sustris, and Wenceslaus Hollar, the selection also highlights work by lesser known but equally superb draftsmen from the 14th to the end of the 17th century. Richly illustrated and fully documented with artist biographies, comparative illustrations, and enlightening commentary on the variety, quality, and purpose of the featured drawings, this book makes a significant scholarly contribution to a field that has not been widely explored.

This sumptuously illustrated book offers a completely new way of looking at the art of Vincent van Gogh, by exploring the artist's approach to nature through his innovative use of the close-up view. Focusing on the last years of the artist's career—from 1886 until his death in July 1890—an international team of leading scholars in the field examines Van Gogh's radical approach to the close-up and sets it in the context of contemporary and historical references, such as his hitherto unrecognized use of photography and his fascination with the Old Masters and with Japanese art and culture. One hundred key paintings dating from his arrival in Paris in 1886 to the end of his career show how Van Gogh experimented with unusual visual angles and the decorative use of color, cropping, and the flattening of his compositions. In some paintings he zoomed in on a tuft of grass or a single budding iris, while depicting shifting views of a field or garden in others. Van Gogh: Up Close not only reveals how these paintings became the most radical and innovative in the artist's body of work but also demonstrates that, far from being a spontaneous or undisciplined artist, Van Gogh was well aware of the history of art and was highly conscious of his efforts to break new ground with his work.

Known as the century of anatomy, the 16th century in Italy saw an explosion of studies and treatises on the discipline. Medical science advanced at an unprecedented rate, and physicians published on anatomy as never before. Simultaneously, many of the period's most prominent artists — including Leonardo and Michelangelo in Florence, Raphael in Rome, and Rubens working in Italy — turned to the study of anatomy to inform their own drawings and sculptures, some by working directly with anatomists and helping to illustrate their discoveries. The result was a rich corpus of art objects detailing the workings of the human body with an accuracy never before attained. Art and Anatomy in Renaissance Italy examines this crossroads between art and science, showing how the attempt to depict bone structure, musculature, and our inner workings — both in drawings and in three dimensions — constituted an important step forward in how the body was represented in art. While already remarkable at the time of their original publication, the anatomical drawings by 16th-century masters have even foreshadowed developments in anatomic studies in modern times.

Known primarily as a great painter, Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1617-1682) was also one of the best draftsmen of the 17th century. Although his devotional paintings seem to have been created effortlessly, they are the result of careful thought and study, a process that comes alive in the preparatory drawings. Murillo used a variety of techniques, favoring pen and ink and brown wash and red-and-black chalk. Like painters schooled in Italian Renaissance practice, the Spaniard developed his paintings in stages, starting with sketches of the full composition and then focusing on details that posed specific problems. Occasionally, Murillo used drawings as a medium for original compositions; these are highly finished pieces, usually enhanced by the use of wash and unmistakably stamped with the artist's personality. This sumptuous book is a thoroughly revised edition of the 1976 publication Murillo & His Drawings. Twenty sheets have been added to the catalogue of authentic works, the bibliography has been brought up to date, and the entries have been revised.

Under the rule of Henry VII (r. 1485-1509) England became a powerful nation. The Tudor court sought to express its worldliness and political clout through major artistic commissions, employing Florentine sculptors and painters to create lavish new interiors, suitable for entertaining foreign dignitaries, for its royal palaces. These were exemplified by Henry VIII's palace of Nonsuch, so named because no other palace could match its magnificence. Italian sculpture, painting, and tapestries of the day reflected an interest in portraiture and dynastic monuments, epitomized in England by the royal tomb projects created by Baccio Bandinelli, Benedetto da Rovezzano, and Pietro Torrigiani. Generously illustrated throughout, The Anglo-Florentine Renaissance traces the artistic links between Medicean Florence and Tudor England through essays by an international team of scholars and explores how the language of Florentine art effectively expressed England's political aspirations and rose to prominence as a new international courtly style.

Titian is acknowledged as the greatest of the sixteenth-century Venetian painters, best known for his portraits, mythological pictures and religious subjects. Yet his first great achievement as a painter, schooled in the workshop of Giovanni Bellini, was to refashion the portrayal of nature in his own distinctive style by studying the work of Albrecht Durer, whose naturalistic paintings of plants, animals and landscape — for which northern European artists were renowned — had caused a sensation in Venice in the first decade of the sixteenth century. In this short, beautifully illustrated book, Antonio Mazzotta presents this experience, together with Titian's native landscape of PievediCadore, as crucial influences in the artist's early representation of nature. The recently restored Flight into Egypt (now in the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg) — probably painted when Titian was still a teenager — is vivid proof of his interest in the depiction of animals, plants and figures in the landscape. The author's carefully chosen comparisons of paintings, prints, drawings and details of works by the young Titian, Durer and their contemporaries (including Sebastiano del Piombo and Giorgione) suggest that Titian was as innovative and as influential in his unique view of nature as he was in portraiture.

Many of the most familiar sartorial images of the 20th century can be traced to the prestigious college campuses of America. The Ivy League Look, or Ivy Style, was once a cutting-edge look that for decades led the evolution of menswear. Far more than a classic way of dressing, Ivy Style spread beyond the rarified walls of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton to influence countless designers. Focusing on menswear dating from the early 20th century through today, this elegant book traces the main periods of the look: the interwar years when classic items, such as tweed jackets and polo coats, were appropriated from the English man's wardrobe and redesigned by pioneering American firms such as Brooks Brothers and J. Press for young men at elite East Coast colleges; then from 1945 to the late 1960s, when the staples of Ivy Style — oxford cloth shirts, khaki pants, and penny loafers — were worn by a new, diverse group that included working-class students and jazz musicians; and finally the current revival of the Ivy look that began in the early 1980s. Ivy Style celebrates both high-profile proponents of the style — including the Duke of Windsor, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and Miles Davis — who made the look their own, and designers such as Ralph Lauren, J. McLaughlin, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Bastian, and Thom Browne, who have made it resonate with new generations of style enthusiasts.

The history of the handbag — its design, how it has been made, used, and worn — reveals something essential about women's lives lived over the last 500 years. Perhaps the most universal item of fashionable adornment, it can also be elusive, an object of desire, secrecy and even fear. Handbags explores these rich histories and multiple meanings. This book features specially commissioned photographs of an extraordinary, newly formed collection of fashionable handbags that dates from the 16th century to the present day. It has been acquired to exhibit in the first museum devoted to the handbag, in Seoul, South Korea. The project is a commission undertaken by experimental exhibition-maker Judith Clark, whose innovative practices are revealed in Handbags. Essays by leading fashion historians and an acclaimed psychoanalyst investigate the history of gesture, the psychoanalysis of bags, and the museum's state-of-the-art mannequins and archive cabinets. In order to preserve the words that describe the unique qualities of each bag, a terminology of handbags has been compiled.

As part of a unique collaboration between the National Gallery and the Royal Opera House, fourteen leading poets were invited to respond to three great masterpieces by the Renaissance painter, Titian: Diana and Callisto, Diana and Actaeon and The Death of Actaeon. Titian's paintings were inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses — stories of transformation — and depict the fatal consequences of a mortal tragically caught up in the affairs of the gods. Titian would have known Ovid's poem from a contemporary translation in Italian. This book's introduction by Nicholas Penny, Ovid, Titian, and English Poetry, shows how Titian incorporated specific elements from Ovid's verses in his paintings, and compares some of the most famous translations in English, from the first version by Arthur Golding (1565) to those by Joseph Addison (1717) and Ted Hughes (1997). The late Lucian Freud described Diana and Callisto and Diana and Actaeon as 'simply the most beautiful pictures in the world'. These new poems, each illustrated with full-colour details from Titian's paintings, demonstrate the quality and range of writing in Britain today, and show how Old Master paintings continue to inspire living artists.

Throughout his long working life, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) produced large-format portraits and subject pictures. This book offers fresh insights into Renoir's complex ambitions as a young artist, when he submitted works to both the avant-garde impressionist exhibitions and the official Salon.

While Baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) is celebrated as a sculptor, architect, and painter, it is less known that he also was a playwright, scenographer, actor, and director. The Baroque period saw the rise of opera and ballet, as well as increasingly elaborate scenographic technologies for court and religious theatre. Bernini drew from this lexicon of theatrical effects, deploying light, movement, and the porous boundary between fictive and physical space to forge a language of Baroque illusion for both his scenographies and his sculptural ensembles. Bernini: Art and Theatre investigates the different types of cultural space for the staging of his art, from court settings to public squares and church interiors. Drawing parallels between the visual and theatrical arts, and highlighting the dramatic amplification of religious art in the period, this provocative study provides a model that can be extended beyond Bernini to enable us to reconsider 17th-century visual culture as a whole.

«Although Jane Hading (1859-1940), Lily Elsie (1886-1962), and Billie Burke (1884-1970) gained fame as stage actresses, their popular appeal also rested on their ability to cultivate a glamorous appearance. Their careers illustrate the early transformation of actresses into marketable commodities whose celebrity status depended on the consumption of their images. This celebrity, in turn, was used to market an array of beauty and fashion goods to women striving to emulate them. The three women featured in «Staging Fashion» exemplify the factors that ensured success for 20th-century actresses. Each of these women was dressed by a leading couturier (or several couturiers), both onstage and offstage. In major cities such as New York, Paris and London, actresses depended on exquisite, custom-made gowns both to secure principal roles and to maintain popularity. Their physical beauty, which was consistent with elite notions of class and race, was depicted on postcards and in popular fashion and theatre magazines and newspapers. Finally, these actresses developed distinct «personalities», which were conveyed by their stage roles and in numerous photos and articles.»

More than most artists, Henri Matisse conducted an ongoing dialogue with his earlier works, continually questioning himself and his methods in order to, as he put it, push further and deeper into true painting. In a fresh approach to this giant of 20th-century art, Matisse: In Search of True Painting examines sixty works and more than five decades in a series of concise chapters by prominent Matisse scholars from the United States and Europe, each focusing on a particular aspect of his artistic development. From early pairs such as Young Sailor I and II (1906) and Le Luxe I and II (1907-8) through five Interiors at Nice (1917-21) to scenes from the studio in Vence (1946-48), the book shows Matisse responding to earlier styles and artists and developing his own, often radical, answers to such problems as how to portray light, handle paint, select colours, and manipulate perspective. The volume also discusses findings from new technical studies carried out on the early paired works that shed more light on Matisse's complex and deeply-felt evolution. Both an intimate glimpse into the artistic process and a significant addition to literature on modern art, Matisse: In Search of True Painting traces the path by which Matisse becomes himself.

A remarkably visual writer, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) emerged from a tradition where illustrations formed a significant part of both serial and book publishing. At the centenary of his birth, Dickens and the Artists explores the novelist's artistic opinions and connections. His tastes are manifest in his novels, his magazine Household Words and his journalism. Dickens engaged with the art of the Old Masters, commenting forthrightly on the latest changes at the National Gallery, and recording his visits to museums during his tours of Europe. As well as exploring Dickens' own views, the distinguished contributors reveal his influence on Victorian artists. He had long and close friendships with some of the leading artists of his time, including Clarkson Stanfield, Daniel Maclise, Frank Stone and William Powell Frith. These and other artists depicted scenes from his novels or drew inspiration from his subjects and characterizations that continue to influence our image of Dickensian England today.

A colourfully decorated Christmas tree, lit with twinkling lights, provokes awe and delight. We understand the lighted tree as a central symbol of the Christmas season, but what are the roots of the tradition? Who first thought to bedeck a tree, to bring it inside? How and where did the local activity grow into a widespread tradition, and how has the Christmas tree traveled across time and continents? Bernd Brunner's brief history — enriched by a selection of delightful and unusual historical illustrations — spans many centuries and cultures to illuminate the mysteries of the Christmas tree and its enduring hold on the human imagination. Tracing various European traditions from the Middle Ages forward, Brunner finds that only in the nineteenth century did Christmas trees become common in European family homes. In North America, the imported custom soon fascinated, though some found the tree not quite compatible with a Puritan mindset. Brunner explores how the Christmas tree entered mainstream American culture and how in recent times it has become globally popular. He introduces Jacqueline Kennedy's Nutcracker Tree in the White House, trees used to celebrate the New Year in Turkey, and the world's most expensive Christmas tree, erected in Abu Dhabi. The author also considers the place of the artificial tree and the ecological dimensions of the Christmas tree trade. A book rich with anecdote and insight, Inventing the Christmas Tree will enchant a wide audience.

Despite his untimely death in 1667 at the age of thirty-seven, Gabriel Metsu left a substantial oeuvre of history paintings, portraits, still lifes, and a large number of exquisite genre scenes. These charming depictions of kitchen maids, elegant young ladies, hunters, drinkers, and amorous couples have gained Metsu a place among the most celebrated painters of seventeenth-century Holland. But his personal life has remained enigmatic. This absorbing book presents the information for Metsu's life and his network of connections, and details the complete range of his work. It will become the standard work on the artist.

Alexander McQueen (1969-2010) was one of the most influential, imaginative and inspirational designers at the turn of the millennium. His fashions both challenged and expanded the conventional parameters of clothing beyond utility to a compelling expression of culture, politics and identity. Focusing on the most iconic and acclaimed designs of his prolific career, this stunning book examines McQueen's inimitable technical virtuosity and its subversion of traditional tailoring and dressmaking practices. This book also focuses on the highly sophisticated narrative structures found in McQueen's collections and in his astonishing and extravagant runway presentations, which suggested the most avant-garde installation and performance art. Intended as an assessment of Alexander McQueen's entire career, this book includes in-depth studies of six collections that illustrate and encapsulate thematic chapters as well as an interview with Sarah Burton, the new creative director of Alexander McQueen who had been the designer's right-hand design aide since 1996.

«With a consuming enthusiasm for the paintings of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), art collector Sterling Clark assembled one of the greatest private collections of Renoir's work during the first half of the twentieth century. Today the masterpieces he so admired form a vital part of the Impressionist holdings of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. «The Genius of Renoir: Paintings from the Clark» offers a fascinating, fresh look at the thirty-two Renoir paintings in the Clark collection, featuring beautiful digital colour reproductions created especially for this volume. This book brings to light new and often revelatory scholarship concerning the importance of each work both within Renoir's oeuvre and within the Clark collection. Among the richly varied paintings, encompassing portraits, landscapes, and still lifes, are such key works as «Marie-Therese Durand-Ruel Sewing», «A Box at the Theatre» (At the Concert), «Onions», and «Venice: the Doge's Palace». John House, a leading authority on Renoir, offers an in-depth analysis of each of the works in the collection, and curator-author James Ganz draws on extensive archival research on Sterling Clark's pursuits as an art collector and museum founder to illuminate this visionary and often enigmatic man.»

The 18th-century painter Johan Zoffany (1733-1810) was an astute observer of the many social circles in which he functioned as an artist over the course of his long career. This catalogue investigates his sharp wit, shrewd political appraisal, and perceptive social commentary (including subtle allusions to illicit relationships) — all achieved while presenting his subjects as delightful and sophisticated members of polite society. A skilled networker, Zoffany established himself at the court of George III and Queen Charlotte soon after his arrival in England from his native Germany. At the same time, he befriended the leading actor David Garrick and through him became the foremost portrayer of Georgian theatre. His brilliant effects and deft style were well suited to theatricality of all sorts, enabling him to secure patronage in England and on the continent. Following a prolonged visit to Italy he travelled to India, where he quickly became a popular and established member within the circle of Warren Hastings, the governor-general. Zoffany's Indian paintings are among his most spectacular and allowed him to return to England enriched and warmly welcomed. This volume provides a sparkling overview of his finest works.