Old Masters

François Boucher: Seductive Visions

224 pages, paperback, 280 x 240 mm, 150 colour illustrations
PRICE: £25.00
ISBN: 978 0 900785 72 6

 

Customers in the US or Canada, CLICK HERE

By Jo Hedley

 

The first monograph to appear on Boucher in English for nearly twenty years, this book is an invaluable contribution to the study of eighteenth-century art. Boucher has cried out for reassessment, and here at last, following the tercentenary year of his birth, his work is seen at its very best in numerous beautiful reproductions. Jo Hedley brings new insights into Boucher’s art, explaining both his stylistic development and his cultural context; she also examines his legacy, both in a survey of the influence of his imagery in many media and in a deconstruction of the myth of his libidinous personality (based on his art, not his life)

This book has been highly acclaimed by numerous reviewers. "Splendidly written and lavishly illustrated, Jo Hedley's book on Francois Boucher is a pioneering publication...Hedley's book abounds in new information, fresh insights and suggestive analysis" (Colin B. Bailey, The Burlington Magazine) Jo Hedley is Curator of Pictures pre-1800 at The Wallace Collection, London.


Masters and Pupils: The Artistic Succession from Perugino to Manet 1480–1880

This book is about a family tree: the line of descent that can be traced from Perugino in Italy in the fifteenth century to Edouard Manet in France in the nineteenth. It is not the usual kind of genealogy, of those connected by blood, more an ‘apostolic succession’, following the way in which art in Europe was taught, from one generation to the next, from 1480 to 1880. More

The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe 1520–1630

Accompanying a major international exhibition at the Wallace Collection (17 May – 16 September 2012), this book celebrates the artistic and cultural importance of the sword, as a symbol of power and prestige, as a flamboyant fashion statement and as an icon of the Age of Discovery. More

Catalogue of Paintings at the Wellington Museum, Apsley House

Seldom has there been a gift of equal magnificence. In 1947 the 7th Duke of Wellington presented to the nation his London residence – Apsley House – together with a large part of its contents, the collection of the 1st Duke. Among the paintings are some of the finest canvases from the Spanish Royal Collection, captured by the 1st Duke of Wellington from Joseph Bonaparte in 1813. There are also important seventeenth-century Dutch paintings bought by the 1st Duke himself, as well as a series of French and British portraits of his illustrious contemporaries and depictions of battle scenes, which provide a visual record of the Napoleonic period. More

French Bronzes in the Wallace Collection

The group of about one hundred French bronzes in the Wallace Collection is justly considered one of the finest such collections in the world. Fifty-one of the best are featured in this book, the first in-depth study of the subject in English. More

Samuel Beckett: A Passion for Paintings

Celebrating the Beckett Centenary. Awarded third prize by The Art Newspaper/Axa Art Prize for best catalogue of the year published in the UK - "admired for the quantity of new material it presented about Beckett himself and the worlds of literature and visual arts". More

My Highest Pleasure: William Hunter's Art Collection

Celebrating the 250th anniversary of the opening of the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow in 2007, this book provides a full study both of William Hunter - the many-faceted surgeon/connoisseur - and of his collection of art, which not only contains a number of outstanding masterpieces, such as a Rembrandt, but also provides a revealing snapshot of the taste of the period. While illuminating this crucial transitional period in British art, the book is at the same time a catalogue of the Hunterian collection. More

Masters of Indian Painting, 1100–1900

Accompanying an exhibition that promises to be the most comprehensive survey of Indian painting that the West has ever seen, this beautiful two volume catalogue spans 800 years of Indian painting, and some 240 masterpieces by more than 40 artists. These great Indian masters are unquestionably the equals of Dürer, Michelangelo or Vermeer. More