Maria Loh, Professor of the History of Art at CUNY Hunter College, chooses her best books on the lives of famous artists. Her choice is varied, including works on portraiture in the renaissance, as well as On Photography by Susan Sontag and Just Kids by Patti Smith. Meanwhile, Adam Eaker, assistant curator in the department of European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, chooses his best books on the Dutch masters. He chooses Still Life with Oysters and Lemon: On Objects and Intimacy by Mark Doty, The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age by Simon Schama, Vermeer by Lawrence Gowing, Rembrandt’s Enterprise: The Studio and the Market by Svetlana Alpers and Art of the Everyday: Dutch Painting and the Realist Novel by Ruth Bernard Yeazell.
Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor of the History of Art at Oxford University, one of the world’s leading authorities on the work of Leonardo da Vinci, chooses his best books on one of the most famous of all artists. He talks about how painting and visualising the world fitted in with Leonardo’s broader scientific interests, particularly optics. Among his choices are Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation by E H Gombrich, The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci by Jean Paul Richter, and Leonardo da Vinci by Kenneth Clark.
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Catherine of Aragon: Henry's Spanish Queen
by Giles Tremlett -
2
de Kooning: An American Master
by Annalyn Swan & Mark Stevens -
3
El «Cuaderno italiano», 1770-1786: los orígenes del arte de Goya
by Jesús Urrea Fernández & Manuela B. Mena Marqués -
4
Cartas a Martín Zapater
by Mercedes Águeda & Xavier de Salas -
5
The Peninsular War: A New History
by Charles Esdaile
The best books on Goya and the art of biography, recommended by Janis Tomlinson
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.
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Emil and the Detectives
by Eileen Hall (translator) & Erich Kästner -
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Private View: The Lively World of British Art
by Antony Armstrong-Jones (Lord Snowdon), Bryan Robertson & John Russell -
3
A Free House!: Or, The Artist as Craftsman
by Walter Richard Sickert -
4
Memoirs of the Life of John Constable: Composed Chiefly of His Letters
by C.R. Leslie -
5
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
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.
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Handel: The Man and His Music
by Jonathan Keates -
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Handel and the English Chapel Royal
by Donald Burrows -
3
Charles Jennens: The Man Behind Handel's Messiah
by Ruth Smith -
4
A General History of Music: From the Earliest Ages to the Present Period
by Charles Burney -
5
The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs Delany
by Mary Delany
The best books on Handel, recommended by Andrew Gant
The best books on Handel, recommended by Andrew Gant
George Frideric Handel was born near Leipzig, became established in Italy, and ended life as England’s national treasure. Andrew Gant—author of a new book on Handel’s most famous composition—selects the five best texts for gaining an understanding of Handel’s life and work, and explains why opera divas were the premiership footballers of the Baroque period.
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Beethoven: Impressions by his Contemporaries
by Oscar Sonneck (Editor) -
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Beethoven Variations: Poems on a Life
by Ruth Padel -
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Beethoven for a Later Age: The Journey of a String Quartet
by Edward Dusinberre -
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Beethoven: The Man Revealed
by John Suchet -
5
Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph
by Jan Swafford
The best books on Beethoven, recommended by Jessica Duchen
The best books on Andy Warhol, recommended by Blake Gopnik
Andy Warhol’s ubiquitous soup cans – and his willingness to play the naïf – eclipse the leading Pop Art figure’s depth, as Blake Gopnik reveals in his magisterial new biography. Here, Gopnik discusses five key books that offer crucial insight into Warhol the man.
The best books on Wagner, recommended by Michael Tanner
Richard Wagner’s works are as immense as they are influential: the four-part, 15-hour saga Der Ring des Nibelungen is the most analysed opera of all time. And yet, Wagner was arrogant and virulently anti-semitic. Can we separate the musical genius from the man? Opera critic Michael Tanner recommends the best books on Wagner.
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso
by Dante Alighieri -
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Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation
by E.H. Gombrich -
3
Leonardo da Vinci: i documenti e le testimonianze contemporanee
by Edoardo Villata -
4
The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci
by Jean Paul Richter -
5
Leonardo da Vinci
by Kenneth Clark
The best books on Leonardo da Vinci, recommended by Martin Kemp
The best books on Leonardo da Vinci, recommended by Martin Kemp
Every generation has its own Leonardo, and for many he remains a man of mystery. Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor in Art History at Oxford and the author of the recently published Mona Lisa: The People and the Painting, helps us identify the non-mythical Leonardo. What might Leonardo be doing were he alive today, in our own digital age?
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.
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Still Life with Oysters and Lemon: On Objects and Intimacy
by Mark Doty -
2
The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age
by Simon Schama -
3
Vermeer
by Lawrence Gowing -
4
Rembrandt's Enterprise: The Studio and the Market
by Svetlana Alpers -
5
Art of the Everyday: Dutch Painting and the Realist Novel
by Ruth Bernard Yeazell
The best books on The Dutch Masters, recommended by Adam Eaker
The best books on The Dutch Masters, recommended by Adam Eaker
The past may be a foreign country, but the world portrayed in the art of the Dutch Masters is not so very far from our own, says Adam Eaker of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. For a society that struggles with materialism and consumption, there are a lot of lessons to be learnt from the 17th century Golden Age.