• The best books on Goya and the art of biography - Catherine of Aragon: Henry's Spanish Queen by Giles Tremlett
  • The best books on Goya and the art of biography - de Kooning: An American Master by Annalyn Swan & Mark Stevens
  • The best books on Goya and the art of biography - El «Cuaderno italiano», 1770-1786: los orígenes del arte de Goya by Jesús Urrea Fernández & Manuela B. Mena Marqués
  • The best books on Goya and the art of biography - Cartas a Martín Zapater by Mercedes Águeda & Xavier de Salas
  • The best books on Goya and the art of biography - The Peninsular War: A New History by Charles Esdaile

The best books on Goya and the art of biography, recommended by Janis Tomlinson

The art of Francisco de Goya reflects the social and political chaos of Spain in his day, leaving later generations to read into his prolific work—by turns formal and bizarre, official and fantastic—many often contradictory interpretations. Art historian Janis Tomlinson recommends books that disentangle Goya from the retroactive projections of later admirers and situates him in his own time. We also consider what makes for a compelling biography.

  • The best books on Lucian Freud - Emil and the Detectives by Eileen Hall (translator) & Erich Kästner
  • The best books on Lucian Freud - Private View: The Lively World of British Art by Antony Armstrong-Jones (Lord Snowdon), Bryan Robertson & John Russell
  • The best books on Lucian Freud - A Free House!: Or, The Artist as Craftsman by Walter Richard Sickert
  • The best books on Lucian Freud - Memoirs of the Life of John Constable: Composed Chiefly of His Letters by C.R. Leslie
  • The best books on Lucian Freud - Nollekens and his Times: Comprehending A Life Of That Celebrated Sculptor, And Memoirs Of Several Contemporary Artists

The best books on Lucian Freud, recommended by William Feaver

Though ferociously private, Lucian Freud spoke about painting, the art world and his life and loves to his confidante and frequent collaborator, William Feaver, on the phone most weeks for many years. Feaver’s transcript forms the core of his definitive two-volume biography. He speaks with us about the best books for understanding the life and work of this renowned painter, and the very particular collaboration that led to this magisterial account of one of the finest painters of the last century.

  • The best books on The Lives of Artists - The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art by Joseph Leo Koerner
  • The best books on The Lives of Artists - The Self-Aware Image: An Insight Into Early Modern Meta-Painting by Victor Stoichita
  • The best books on The Lives of Artists - On Photography by Susan Sontag
  • The best books on The Lives of Artists - Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes
  • The best books on The Lives of Artists - Just Kids by Patti Smith

The best books on The Lives of Artists, recommended by Maria Loh

We live in an age obsessed with self-image. Technology has made the ‘selfie’ a ubiquitous form of social currency. Renaissance means may have been very different, but celebrity artists in Medici Florence dealt with many of the issues relating to identity and authorship that we grapple with today. Maria Loh, author of Still Lives: Death, Desire, and the Portrait of the Old Master, talks to Five Books about the curated self.