Victoria Crowe is one of the world's most vital and original figurative painters. Her instantly recognisable work is represented in a large number of public and private collections. This extensively illustrated new book looks in depth at some of her own favourite portraiture. Looking at the psychology of her subjects and of herself in painting them, this is a fascinating book. Whether you are intrigued by the enigmatic stare of a psychiatrist, struck by the haunted eyes of an Auschwitz survivor or curious about the meaningful surroundings of her own self-portrait, this is an absorbing and enthralling read. Victoria Crowe lives in Scotland and Venice.

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.

This delightful book describes and interprets a series of paintings for each day of Lent. Artists often address subjects that our culture seeks to avoid, and Sister Wendy's brilliant and perceptive reflections will help you to read these paintings with a more discerning eye, and encounter deeper levels of spiritual meaning than may at first appear.

A definitive new biography, deftly interweaving an account of Turner's early life with profound scholarly and aesthetic appreciation of his work A complex figure, and divisive during his lifetime, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) has long been considered Britain's greatest painter. An artist of phenomenal invention, complexity, and industry, Turner is now one of the world's most popular painters. This comprehensive new account of his early life draws together recent scholarship, corrects errors in the existing literature, and presents a wealth of new findings. In doing so, it furnishes a more detailed understanding than ever before of the connections between Turner's life and art. Taking a strictly chronological approach, Eric Shanes addresses Turner's intellectual complexity and depth, his technical virtuosity, his personal contradictions, and his intricate social and cultural relations. Shanes draws on decades of familiarity with his subject, as well as newly discovered source material, such as the artist's principal bank records, which shed significant light on his patronage and sales. The result, written in a warm, engaging style, is a comprehensive and magnificently illustrated volume which will fundamentally shape the future of Turner studies.

This fascinating book studies Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1845-1902), one of the great Orientalist painters of the Third Republic in France. Renowned during his time but little known today, Benjamin-Constant created massive architectural compositions based on travels to Spain and Morocco, in which he set fierce-looking Moors and dispassionate odalisques. His history paintings, based on stories from the Bible and Byzantine history, were the culmination of his ventures into Orientalism, and his sparkling palette resulted in wonderfully chromatic and beautiful works. Benjamin-Constant also stands out as one of the era's great painters of decorative cycles, from his work in Paris at the Opera Comique and the Gare d'Orsay, to the Capitole in Toulouse. Generously illustrated and written by an international team of specialists on late-19th-century French art, this is the first book to focus on this captivating figure, offering new and unpublished research into his life and practices in his studio and at the Paris Salon.

Dear Scotland was first performed as a promenade piece of theatre by the National Theatre of Scotland on 24 April 2014 at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Twenty of Scotland's leading playwrights, authors and poets were commissioned to write monologues inspired by a portrait of their choice, which each address Scotland now. Dear Scotland is a witty, intelligent and irreverent conversation between Scotland and the figures, whether iconic or forgotten, that make the country what it is today. PETER ARNOTT * JO CLIFFORD * ROB DRUMMOND * JANICE GALLOWAY * DAVID GREIG * ZINNIE HARRIS * IAIN HEGGIE * STUART HEPBURN * JACKIE KAY * A L KENNEDY * HARDEEP SINGH KOHLI * LIZ LOCHHEAD * IAIN FINLAY MACLEOD * NICOLA McCARTNEY * JOHNNY McKNIGHT * LINDA McLEAN * RONA MUNRO * JAMES ROBERTSON * ALI SMITH * LOUISE WELSH

Illustrated with 167 full colour images, this landmark book charts Alexander Moffat's career from student days at Edinburgh College of Art in the 1960s to the recent Scotland's Voices. Iconic portraits of major figures in literature and the other arts are represented. The cultural significance of the visual chronicle Moffat has created lies in his approach to portraiture. He aims not only to capture a sitter's appearance but also to convey something of their inner character, reaching 'a balance between emotional expression and compositional order'.

Part of a series of exciting and luxurious Flame Tree Notebooks. Combining high-quality production with magnificent fine art, the covers are printed on foil in five colours, embossed, then foil stamped. And they're powerfully practical: a pocket at the back for receipts and scraps, two bookmarks and a solid magnetic side flap. These are perfect for personal use and make a dazzling gift. This example features Beautiful Decay by IA LONDON. IA LONDON is an avant-garde fashion brand founded in 2016 by Cambridge-based designer and creative director Ira Avezov, who begins her design process by creating a series of hand-painted digital works. This stunning artwork is taken from a collection of beautiful paintings of flowers based on the metaphoric interpretation of gravity as aging and decay, titled The Symptoms of Gravity. These incredible images have been digitally altered to appear as if they are being pulled into the ground, not only by gravity but also by the passage of time.

A fascinating look at the genesis and meaning of Van Gogh's famed paintings of his bedroom Vincent van Gogh's The Bedroom, a painting of his room in Arles, is arguably the most famous depiction of a bedroom in the history of art. The artist made three versions of the work, now in the collections of the Van Gogh Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Musee d'Orsay. This book is the first in-depth study of their making and their meaning to the artist. In Van Gogh's Bedrooms, an international team of art historians, scientists, and conservators investigates the psychological and emotional significance of the bedroom in Van Gogh's oeuvre, surveying dwellings as a motif that appears throughout his work. Essays address the context in which the bedroom was first conceived, the uniqueness of the subject, and the similarities and differences among the three works both on and below the painted surface. The publication reproduces more than 50 paintings, drawings, and illustrated letters by the artist, along with other objects that evoke his peripatetic life and relentless quest for "home."

The work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) reflects an ongoing belief in the power of brilliant colors and simple forms. Though famed in particular for his paintings, Matisse also worked with drawing, sculpture, lithography, stained glass, and collage, developing his unique cut-out medium when old age left him unable to stand and paint. Matisse's subjects were often conventional: nudes, portraits, and figures in landscapes, Oriental scenes, and interior views, but in his handling of bold color and fluid draftsmanship, he secured his place as a 20th-century master. It was Matisse's palette that particularly thrilled the modern imagination. With vivid blue, amethyst purple, egg-yolk yellow, and many shades beyond he liberated his work from a meticulous representation of reality and sought instead a "vital harmony," often referring to music as an inspiration or analogy for his work. A comprehensive and informative source, this lavishly illustrated publication has been revised in close collaboration with the Matisse estate. Including preparatory studies, full-page reproductions, and enlarged details, discover the artist's adventurous path, from the chromatic brilliance of his Fauve period, right through to his invention of gouache cut-outs at the ripe age of 80. Each image has been reproduced with painstaking care to create a viewing experience worthy of the expressionist par excellence. The bard of color deserves no less. 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

In recent years David Hockney has returned to England to paint the landscape of his childhood in East Yorkshire. Although his passionate interest in new technologies has led him to develop a virtuoso drawing technique on an iPad, he has also been accompanied outdoors by the traditional sketchbook, an invaluable tool as he works quickly to capture the changing light and fleeting effects of the weather. Executed in watercolour and ink, these panoramic scenes have the spatial complexity of finished paintings - the broad sweep of sky or road, the patchwork tapestry of land - yet convey the immediacy of Hockney's impressions. And as in the views down village streets and across kitchen tables that appear alongside them, his rooted and fond knowledge of the area around the East Yorkshire Wolds is always clear. If you know the region, the location of the sketches is unmistakable; if you don't, its features will come to life in these pages.

* Includes over 200 reproductions of Grey's artwork, including many never-before-reproduced paintings * Contains spectacular photos of Grey's collaboration with the cult band TOOL plus his worldwide live-painting performances * Offers Grey's reflections on how art evolves consciousness with a new symbology of the Networked Self Revealing the interwoven energies of body and soul, love and spirit that illuminate the core of each being, Alex Grey's mystic paintings articulate the realms of consciousness encountered during visits to entheogenic heaven worlds. His painting Net of Being - inspired by a blazing vision of an infinite grid of Godheads during an ayahuasca journey - has reached millions as the cover and interior of the band TOOL's Grammy award-winning triple-platinum album, 10,000 Days. Net of Being is one of many images Grey has created that have resulted in a chain reaction of uses - from apparel and jewellery to tattoos and music videos - embedding these iconic works into our culture's living Net of Being. The book explores how the mystical experience expressed in Alex Grey's work opens a new understanding of our shared consciousness and unveils the deep influence art can have on cultural evolution. The narrative progresses through a successive expansion of identity - from the self, to self and beloved, to self and community, world spirit and cosmic consciousness, where bodies are transparent to galactic energies. Presenting over 200 images, including many never-before-reproduced paintings as well as masterworks such as St. Albert and the LSD Revelation Revolution and Godself, the book also documents performance art, live-painting on stage throughout the world, and the "social sculpture" called CoSM, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, that Grey cofounded with his wife and creative collaborator, artist Allyson Grey.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (Leiden 1606 - Amsterdam 1669) is amongst the greatest painters and engravers of all times. He was undoubtedly the major exponent of the Dutch Golden Age in art. He explored all the genres of painting: from group portrait - which he radically changed with "The Night Watch" - to biblical themes, from self-portraiture - a constant subject of his research - to landscape. Rembrandt had a strong personality, an extraordinary technical ability ever increased by unending experiments and a vast visual culture (from primitive Flemish painters to the Italian Renaissance). During his entire life, marked by glory and misery, by relationships contrary to bourgeois morality and by numerous bereavements, Rembrandt always aimed at the representation of reality and of nature, attempting to isolate its innermost truth, in a search often opposed to artistic conventions and decorum of contemporary society.

L.S. Lowry's famous urban landscapes and self-titled 'matchstick men' have captured the imagination of generation after generation. Invoking a sense of wonder and curiosity in the everyday images of a northern English town, his work is truly unique. Get a sense of this work with this week-to-view desk diary filled with his myriad drawings and paintings.

This is the illustrated story of New York artist Chris Daze Ellis's successful transition from the subways to international studios and galleries. Follow his 30+ year career from his days as a teenage graffiti writer to his current life as a professional painter, mentor, and family man. This book, with more than 250 photographs, is a journey tracking the seminal moments in Daze's life that shaped his art. View his aesthetic evolution, from "Graffiti High" (New York's High School of Art and Design) and an "unsanctioned" street art phase to exhibitions with Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Train photos from the 1970s and '80s, a broad representation of Daze's studio and mural works, and personal photos guide the reader through an artistic portfolio spanning five decades. Contributions by graffiti writer Jay "J.SON" Edlin and essayist Claire Schwartz, and a foreword by graffiti historian and chronicler Sacha Jenkins, complete this volume.

A revealing, interdisciplinary exploration of the brilliant visual quotations in the work of the celebrated grand-manner portraitist The work of portraitist John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) has come to epitomize the glamour and anxiety of his age. In this innovative study, Bruce Redford reveals the web of visual quotations and references that informed Sargent's most ambitious paintings. Throughout his career, Sargent was recognized and rewarded as a "Young Master" whose bravura portraits inspired comparison with the likes of Velazquez, Van Dyck, and Reynolds. At the same time, his paintings responded to the stylistic experiments and cultural preoccupations of a world on the cusp of modernity. Sargent achieved this complex synthesis through a pictorial language composed of witty acts of allusion. John Singer Sargent and the Art of Allusion offers the first sustained inquiry into the painter's practice of quotation-one that created a complex visual code. Through comparative analysis among thematic groupings of portraits and analogous literary texts, Redford shows how Sargent devised and transmitted that code. The result is an enhanced awareness of Sargent's daring gamesmanship, his place in the history of portraiture, and the dynamics of allusion in both art and literature.

Glasgow Museums has the finest collection of Italian paintings of any civic museums service in the UK. It includes some 150 paintings ranging from the late 14th century to the late 19th century. This catalogue begins with an historical introduction to the collection and its donors, and includes 192 colour reproductions.

Collected for the first time in a new translation: two of the most important and far-reaching biographies of an artist ever written, and our principal sources for the life of Velazquez. Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) is for many the greatest painter ever to have lived. His astonishing naturalism had an immediate and lasting impact on his contemporaries, inspiring both awe and fierce debate. Most of what we know about Velazquez' life and incomparably successful career comes from these two biographies. Francisco Pacheco, a second rank painter, was Velazquez' teacher and eventually father in law - possibly the closest relationship between a painter and his biographer in all art. This Life, part of Pacheco's theoretical work, the Art of Painting, has never been translated before, and it reveals the scale of the challenge to traditional painting presented by Velazquez' insurmountable talent. Antonio Palomino, the Spanish Vasari, was born just after Velazquez died, but knew many of the painter's friends and colleagues. His biography, precise and detailed, is an incomparable source, but like Pacheco's text, also tackles the aesthetic debate engendered by Velazquez' choice of subject matter and style. Together these biographies give an excitingly close insight into the mind and world of a great painter. The introduction by Michael Jacobs situates these biographies in the context of Spain's Golden Age, and the intellectual ferment in painting and in the theatre that lie behind Velazquez' magic. The translations are by Nina Ayala Mallory, the leading scholar of Spanish artistic biographies. The volume is richly illustrated with 30 plates illustrating the full gamut of Velazquez' work.

Raphael (1483-1520) was for centuries considered the greatest artist who ever lived. Much of what we know about him comes from this biography, written by the Florentine painter Giorgio Vasari and first published in 1550. Vasari's Lives of the Painters was the first attempt to write a systematic history of Italian art. The Life of Raphael is a key text not only for the appreciation of Raphael's own art - whose development and chronology Vasari describes in detail, together with the spectacular social career of the first painter to be mooted, it was claimed, as a Cardinal - but also for its unprecedented attention to theoretical issues.

When Picasso became Picasso: the story of how an obscure young painter from Barcelona came to Paris and made himself into the most influential artist of the twentieth century. In 1900, an eighteen-year-old Spaniard named Pablo Picasso made his first trip to Paris. It was in this glittering capital of the international art world that, after suffering years of poverty and neglect, he emerged as the leader of a bohemian band of painters, sculptors, and poets. Fueled by opium and alcohol, inspired by raucous late-night conversations at the Lapin Agile cabaret, Picasso and his friends resolved to shake up the world. For most of these years Picasso lived and worked in a squalid tenement known as the Bateau Lavoir, in the heart of picturesque Montmartre. Here he met his first true love, Fernande Olivier, a muse whom he would transform in his art from Symbolist goddess to Cubist monster. These were years of struggle, often of desperation, but Picasso later looked back on them as the happiest of his long life. Recognition came slowly: first in the avant-garde circles in which he traveled, and later among a small group of daring collectors, including the Americans Leo and Gertrude Stein. In 1906, Picasso began the vast, disturbing masterpiece known as Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Inspired by the groundbreaking painting of Paul Cezanne and the startling inventiveness of African and tribal sculpture, Picasso created a work that captured and defined the disorienting experience of modernity itself. The painting proved so shocking that even his friends assumed he'd gone mad. Only his colleague George Braque understood what Picasso was trying to do. Over the next few years they teamed up to create Cubism, the most revolutionary and influential movement in twentieth-century art. This is the story of an artistic genius with a singular creative gift. It is filled with heartbreak and triumph, despair and delirium, all of it played out against the backdrop of the world's most captivating city.

The final volume in a full survey of the work of John Singer Sargent, covering his late watercolors, designs for the Boston murals, and work as an official War Artist The last in a series of books devoted to the work of John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), this volume covers the figure and landscape works that Sargent produced between 1914 and 1925. The story begins with the artist painting with friends on vacation in Austria in the summer of 1914, unaware that war was about to be declared. The following year, he began working in London on his ideas for the murals at the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, before spending two years in Boston and exploring other parts of America. While in Florida to paint a portrait of John D. Rockefeller, he produced a group of uniquely Floridian watercolors that are breathtaking arrangements of color, form, and light. In July 1918 he accepted an invitation from the British government to travel to the Somme battlefields as an official war artist. This experience led him to produce a remarkable group of works depicting troop movements, off-duty soldiers relaxing, and the studies for his epic canvas, Gassed. Sargent returned to Boston in 1921 and 1922 to complete his mural projects, and visits to Maine and New Hampshire yielded numerous watercolors. Chapters on Sargent's materials and the framing of his pictures complete this remarkable project.