Inspired by the recent identification of a third autograph version of Gainsborough’s masterpiece The Cottage Door, this book examines the significance of the multiple versions of designs that the artist produced during the 1780s. It demonstrates that without the pressure of exhibiting his work annually at the Academy and without a string of sitters waiting for their finished portraits, Gainsborough’s work became more personal, more thoughtful. This study of the last phase of the artist’s work is a totally fresh interpretation of not only The Cottage Door but other key works such as Mrs Sheridan and Diana and Acteon. Gainsborough’s creative energies changed around 1780. He became restless and wanted to promote his landscape painting more effectively. He started to paint coastal scenes using an innovative painting technique to depict the water and he embarked on a series of ‘fancy’ pictures that he would position him as a descendant of an Old Master tradition. He was never happy with the constraints of the Royal Academy and he was at odds with the dictatorial opinions promoted by its president, Sir Joshua Reynolds. Removing himself from the Academy enabled him finally to do what he wanted.He began to turn to portrait compositions that he had developed and refined over a number of years. With subtle alterations they could be made suitable for a variety of sitters. The subtlety of his skilled observation was less easy to accommodate in standard-sized full-length canvases and in these portraits he sometimes resorted to rhetoric gesture that fought against the closely observed likenesses in his best portraits. The margin between ‘fancy’ pictures and portraits became blurred and the categorization of some of these paintings changed while they were on the easel. Always finding composition difficult, rather than begin something new he often revisited earlier designs that had pleased him. He would paint them again and make slight changes of tone and emphasis that would radically change the concept and intention of the design. The subject matter in some of his late paintings veers towards the autobiographical and shows a certain rift between him and his family.

This work contains illustrations of the thirteenth century Byzantine New Testament at the Rockefeller-McCormack collection in Chicago with a full description of its text, provenance, and the artistic and theological significance of the miniatures.

At one time, sardines were an inexpensive staple for many Americans. The 212 photographs in this elegant volume offer a striking document of this now vanished industry. Generations of workers in Maine have snipped, sliced, and packed the small, silvery fish into billions of cans on their way to Americans' lunch buckets and kitchen cabinets. On April 15, 2010, Stinson's Seafood, once the home of Beach Cliff Sardines, shut down the packing line that had made the name world famous. Begun in 1927, Stinson's empire eventually included sardine canneries spread along the Maine coast and a fleet of ships to supply them. With this closing, however, the end of the entire sardine industry in Maine had finally arrived. Photographer Markham Starr was privileged to spend several days at the Stinson factory in Prospect Harbor, one month before it was dismantled, emerging with a collection of remarkable images that transform the parts of the cannery into works of art and capture the resilience of the workers faced with the loss of jobs many had held for decades. This book includes a short essay, and shows the heartland of Maine at its finest.

The murals that were produced in this country in the twentieth century remain as one of the great inventive achievements in modern British art. Highly original in their approach to design, balancing varying degrees of modernity or tradition, they demonstrate the creative drive of their makers and contain singular expressions of the aesthetic, personal and social concerns that typify the ages from which they come. Some are celebrations of simple human pleasures, perhaps to decorate a refreshment room, an ocean liner or a dining room. Others are intended to be the highest expressions of their art, ambitious allegorical or decorative compositions that like the frescoes of theRenaissance would speak through the ages to later generations. The individuals and committees who commissioned them similarly believed they would both represent the best that Britain had to offer and mark the high accomplishment of contemporary society, elevating the public and private spaces they occupied and inspiring moral purpose.This catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibition ‘British Murals & Decorative Painting 1910-1970’ which took place at the Fine Art Society - London (13 February - 9 March 2013) in association with Liss Llewellyn Fine Art. It coincided with the Sansom & Co publication British Murals & Decorative Painting 1920-1960.

British Murals & Decorative Painting 1920-1960 is illustrated with a series of specially commissioned photographs that record some of the least-known but most remarkable murals in Great Britain. The majority of these have never been reproduced in colour before.The book is divided into two sections. Part one seeks to define mural and decorative painting within its historic context. Alan Powers’ survey of the major events and significant dates describes the background out of which the mural revival of the early twentieth century emerged and the role played by its main patrons, artists, art schools, and institutions. It offers important re-interpretations of some of the best-known schemes and draws attention to some of those which deserve to be better known, arguing for a more inclusive view of twentieth-century British art and with it a more developed understanding of the role of murals in the lives of the artists who produced them.Part two of the book consists of 15 essays – written by experts in the field – which provide in-depth case studies of selected works, as well as considering the careers of specific artists as muralists. This section gives a special emphasis to murals which are less well-known and in many cases have only recently been rediscovered.As a consequence of remaining out of the public domain murals often end up being written out of the accounts of the lives of the artists who created them – not withstanding the fact that for sheer size and scale it might be assumed that they counted amongst the most ambitious projects they ever undertook. The book seeks to highlight the importance of murals and decorative painting as part of the untold story of twentieth-century British Art. So long as these works are poorly documented and largely unprotected they will remain a part of Britain’s artistic heritage which is undervalued and at risk.

In the seventies, a group of American photographers challenged the established, modernist mode of photographic expression. Instead of viewing the camera as an objective, optical device and photographs as mechanically reproducible artistic products, the proponents of the new staged photography' seized the possibilities of conveying holistic life experiences by employing a full range of sensory impressions. In Impure Vision, photography theorist Moa Goysdotter analyses the work of four of the leading names in this new genre -- Les Krims, Duane Michals, Arthur Tress, and Lucas Samaras. Applying new perspectives to Seventies' art photography, she sheds fresh light on the four artists' critiques of purist ideals, and looks closely at their efforts to transcend the limitations of the purely visual effect of photography. Impure vision not only tells the history of American staged photography in a broad perspective, drawing on theories and methods new to the field, but also puts forward new approaches to photography history and theory in general.

The Lygo Collection of Qur’an manuscripts, which date from around a century after the Prophet Muhammad’s death in 632 CE to the middle of the 16th century, includes pages from some of the most celebrated manuscripts of the period as well as lesser-known ones, and provide a comprehensive overview of stylistic developments in Qur’anic calligraphy and illumination. During the period represented by this outstanding collection, the scriptsand formats used for copying and illuminating the Holy Word multiplied and developed – visual testimony to the extraordinary exchange of ideas that took place under the ’Abbasid dynasty, which stretched at its height from the Atlantic to the borders of China. The consistent esteem in which the art of the calligrapher was held across the Islamic world reflected the status of the Qur’an as the unmediated word of Allah and its centrality to the notions of Islamic culture and identity. As the most continuously copied text in the Islamic world the Qur’an is one of the best prisms through which to view changes in calligraphy and manuscript production – a survey of which is given in an introductory essay. Accompanying beautiful reproductions of each of the 73 objects in the collection are detailed descriptions in which the characteristic of the script and design as well as the history of each manuscript is considered. Important early examples in the Lygo Collection include a folio from a famous late 8th-century Qur’an writtenentirelyin gold Kufi script, every page of which is framed by an illuminated border, and a leaf from the Blue Qur’an – one of the most famous and luxurious Kufi Qur’an manuscripts, written in gold on blue parchment, dating to the 9th or 10th century. The preeminence of the early Kufi scripts was challenged in the 11th century by various cursive scripts and there was a concurrent change from papyrus to paper and from a landscape to an upright format for many copies of the Qur’an. A highly decorated leaf in the Lygo collection is from an 11th-or 12th century manuscript considered to be one of the masterpieces of Qur’anic calligraphy and illumination and is thought to have stretched over 2,250 leaves in total. New heights in calligraphy and illumination were reached under Mongol rule – a period of artistic brilliance and innovation– and the monumentality in Qur’an production by the Mamluk and Timurid dynasties can be seen as an artistic response to the Mongol challenge. A large fragment in the Lygo collection comes from a magnificent Qur’an of extraordinary dimensions thought to be made for Timur, the founder of the Timurid Empire.

A mysterious little character can be seen on scene 10 of the famous Bayeux Tapestry. His name is Turold. In this activity booklet, Turold tells you the same story as the one related on the Bayeux Tapestry, from which the 12 scenes reproduced here by Gilles Pivard have been freely inspired. On each page, the illustration contains one or many little Turolds for you to find... You'll need an eagle eye to spot them all!

The Nobile Index is a series of monographic publications of art sales prices achieved at auction, for a selection of leading 20th-century British artists. They involve the collaboration of a commercial art dealership, Piano Nobile Works of Art and the University of Bristol's History of Art Department; bringing together academic and commercial expertise on the artists for the benefit of those with an interest in their work. They are funded by the generosity of a private benefactor. The studies are confined to analyses of auction art sales results from 1990 to the time of the study. Although largely from UK sales, data supplied by international salerooms are also included. Graphs and interpretations of these figures are analysed and significant trends and buying patterns revealed. It is envisaged that this data will be of growing value to private and corporate clients, museums and fine art funds. Accurate commercial appraisal has always played an important role in the consideration of new acquisitions throughout the history of art. No more so than today is this seen with the fluctuating, but ever more significant rise in value commanded by the best of many 20th-century artists' work. This publication of the Nobile Index Series, written by Rhian Addison, who gained a Masters degree from Bristol University in History of Art, focuses on the sales history of L.S. Lowry, one of the most important British artists of the twentieth century, an idiosyncratically home-grown artist with a specifically British vision. Evaluating general market trends, genres, and media amongst other factors, Rhian Addison's investigation provides an invaluable source of information on L.S. Lowry as an artist and the legacy and future of his work within the art market. The publication come in two sections - an introduction, results and analysis and a booklet insert of appendices.

Leonardo's fame is bound up in great works whose background is obscure. There is the Mona Lisa, for which we do not know the exact year of commencement, The Last Supper, whose state of conservation has always given rise to particular concern, and the Battle of Anghiari, whose renown goes well beyond the actual existence of the work, for which researchers are still hunting today. It is this ongoing research that motivated the publication of our volume, which aims to record the known facts about the Battle of Anghiari. The vanished work is so famous as to be known to academics and the general public alike, despite - still - being considered as lost. Here we have a case of fame without equal and which appears even more evident if we consider that Leonardo's painting remained visible for just over fifty years, while his preparatory sketch was available to artists for almost two centuries. The destiny of the Battle of Anghiari was already clear to Paolo Giovio writing in the 1530s: "our sorrow for the unforeseen damage seems only to have wondrously increased the fascination of the unfinished work". Based on descriptions and eyewitness accounts, this study will present a variety of documents, such as literary sources that describe the painting and figurative evidence, such as Leonardo's own preparatory drawings or copies by later artists. Nor should we fail to consider manuscript sources relating to the commissioning and execution of the first part of the work, often traceable through payments registered in archive sources. Equally essential is an overview of the historical context in which the Battle of Anghiari was painted and of the significance of this event. English Language Edition.

A controversial essay on one of the treasures of Armenian art, arguing that its illuminations were original and Armenian; with 38 plates.

The Nobile Index is a series of monographic publications of art sales prices achieved at auction, for a selection of leading 20th-century British artists. They involve the collaboration of a commercial art dealership, Piano Nobile Works of Art and the University at Bristol's History of Art Department; bringing together academic and commercial expertise on the artists for the benefit of those with an interest in their work. They are funded by the generosity of a private benefactor. The studies are confined to analyses of auction results over the last 20 years. Although largely from UK sales, data supplied by international salerooms are also included. Graphs and interpretations of these figures are analysed and significant trends and buying patterns revealed. It is envisaged that this data will be of growing value to private and corporate clients, museums and fine art funds. Accurate commercial appraisal has always played an important role in the consideration of new acquisitions throughout the history of art. No more so than today is this seen with the fluctuating, but ever more significant rise in value commanded by the best of many 20th-century artists' work. This publication, written by Dr Louise Hughes during the course of her doctoral studies at the University of Bristol, makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on David Bomberg, the important twentieth-century British Vorticistm, war artist and modernist. Dr Hughes establishes for the first time a relationship between his fortunes in the auction houses and the fluctuations in his critical reception. Auctioning David Bomberg: A Sales History 1990-2010 consists of an introduction, results and analaysis, and a booklet with corresponding appendices.

The Nobile Index is a series of monographic publications of art sales prices achieved at auction, for a selection of leading 20th-century British artists. They involve the collaboration of a commercial art dealership, Piano Nobile Works of Art and the University at Bristol's History of Art Department; bringing together academic and commercial expertise on the artists for the benefit of those with an interest in their work. They are funded by the generosity of a private benefactor. The studies are confined to analyses of auction results over the last 21 years. Although largely from UK sales, data supplied by international salerooms are also included. Graphs and interpretations of these figures are analysed and significant trends and buying patterns revealed. It is envisaged that this data will be of growing value to private and corporate clients, museums and fine art funds. Accurate commercial appraisal has always played an important role in the consideration of new acquisitions throughout the history of art. No more so than today is this seen with the fluctuating, but ever more significant rise in value commanded by the best of many 20th-century artists' work. Written by Dr Louise Hughes as part of her doctoral studies at the University of Bristol, this publication establishes the art market fortunes of one of Britain's foremost modern artists, Walter Sickert. Examining factors such as general and specific market trends, media, genres and biography, Dr Hughes' analysis of sales prices provides an invaluable research tool in assessing the commercial positioning of Sickert's work. The publication consists of two sections - biography, results and analysis and an insert with an appendices of works sold between 1990 and 2011.

A collection of 16 essays on the artist’s painting and works for the theatre between 1910 and 1924. The essays explore the colour theories that gave rise to her abstract painting and the basic laws of structure that gave order to her Cubist, Simultaneist, Non-Objective painting and her stage and costume design. Contemporary accounts of her three plays, Famira Kifared, Salome, and Romeo and Juliet are included together with extracts from Alexander Tairov’s, Notes of a Director (1921). The book closes with a detailed and illustrated Chronology of Exter’s exhibitions and paintings.

Sharing Knowledge & Cultural Heritage (SK&CH), First Nations of the Americas, testifies to the growing commitment of museum professionals in the twenty-first century to share collections with the descendants of people and communities from whom the collections originated. Thanks to collection histories and the documenting of relations with particular indigenous communities, it is well known that until as recently as the 1970s, museum doors - except for a handful of cases - were shut to indigenous peoples.This volume is the result of an "expert meeting" held in November 2007 at the National Museum of Ethnology (NME) in Leiden, the Netherlands. Since then SK&CH projects have developed. The NME invited leading indigenous as well as non-native professional experts in the field from the Americas and Europe to explore and discuss case studies based on fieldwork, collecting material culture and/or work with indigenous communities in Greenland, the Canadian Arctic, North America and Central and South America.

When Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919) was asked whose talents he would most like to possess, he declared: "Rembrandt's." Like Frick, the Dutch art historian Frederik Johannes Lugt (1884–1970) was a great admirer and collector of works by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69); as a teenager he wrote a biography of the artist, illustrated with his own copies after Rembrandt's most famous works. From February 15 to May 15, 2011 the Frick presented a selection of Rembrandt's works as seen through the eyes of these two renowned collectors, devoting three exhibition spaces to the work of this artist and his school.