Recommendations from our site
“I was completely charmed by the scurrilous, sardonic, sarcastic and farcical account of the life of this very eccentric, miserly, unhappily married person who made portrait busts of eminent people such as the bibulous politician Charles James Fox. It’s a splendid book, with none of the pieties of standard art biographies. What makes these so irritating to my mind, and to my eyes, is that they often see more intellectual substance and indeed more cunning in painting than is actually there. Painting is a fundamentally straightforward practice. If you’re making portrait busts like Nollekens did, it’s practically a nine-to-five occupation and not something to be larded in mysticism.” Read more...
The best books on Lucian Freud
William Feaver, Artists & Art Critic
Our most recommended books
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Leonardo da Vinci: i documenti e le testimonianze contemporanee
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Memoirs of the Life of John Constable: Composed Chiefly of His Letters
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Vermeer
by Lawrence Gowing -
Surreal Spaces: The Life and Art of Leonora Carrington
by Joanna Moorhead -
The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci
by Jean Paul Richter -
Nollekens and his Times: Comprehending A Life Of That Celebrated Sculptor, And Memoirs Of Several Contemporary Artists
