272 pages, hardback, 280 x 210 mm, 111 colour illustrations
PRICE: £30.00
ISBN: 978 1 870787 96 3
The Spooner collection of British watercolours is one of the finest of its kind, featuring all the leading artists of the period 1750–1850. Among the fine sheets included are watercolours of the Lake District by John White Abbott, and rural scenes by several artists – Gainsborough, Turner, Cozens, Rowlandson, Francis Towne, Samuel Palmer. Architecture dominates the setting in works by Girtin, Cotman and Sandby. The essays accompanying the catalogue discuss outdoor painting and the role of memory in watercolour painting, the connoisseurship of and attitudes towards watercolours; and give a brief biography of William Wycliffe Spooner himself.
Michael Broughton is Chairman of the W.W. Spooner Charitable Trust. William Clarke is Head of Conservation, Joanna Selbourne is Curator of Prints and John Murdoch is former Director at the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery.
Accompanying an exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery, this catalogue explores one of the most important and historically neglected art forms of Renaissance Florence: cassoni – pairs of chests that were lavishly decorated with precious metals and elaborate paintings and were often the most expensive of a whole suite of decorative objects commissioned to celebrate marriage alliances between powerful families. More
This book accompanies an exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery, London, that will be the first to offer a comprehensive account of the parallel artistic paths charted by Piet Mondrian and Ben Nicholson during the 1930's. It will bring together an extraordinary group of paintings and reliefs to show how each artist was driven by a profound belief in the potential of abstract art to attain the highest aestethic and spiritual power. More
This is the first publication dedicated to the extraordinary series of paintings of London that André Derain produced at the height of his avant-garde notoriety, having been newly branded a Fauve or 'wild beast' in Paris for his uncompromising use of pure colour. More
Paul Cézanne’s famous series of paintings of peasants playing cards has long been considered among his most important and powerful works. The image of seated peasants, still and seeming silent, concentrating on their game of cards, can be seen as the human counterpart to the landscapes of Cézanne’s home countryside, notably Montagne Sainte-Victoire, which held such iconic significance for him. More
Published to accompany the first substantial exhibition on the tradition of Spanish drawings to take place at The Courtauld Gallery, London, this catalogue captures the excitement and importance of this rapidly developing field of study. More
This is an overdue investigation into one of the most remarkable artistic enterprises of the seventeenth century, much cited but seldom discussed, David Teniers the Younger’s publication in 1660 of the magnificent Theatrum Pictorium or Theatre of Painting, the first illustrated and printed collection catalogue. More
The Courtauld’s Adam and Eve is arguably the most beautiful of Cranach’s fifty or more depictions of this subject. It brilliantly combines devotional meaning with pictorial elegance and invention. This exhibition catalogue explores the making and meaning of this Protestant and courtly masterpiece, and the contexts in which it was made and seen. It incorporates much conservation and technical research. More
Accompanying an exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery, London, this publication is the first to celebrate the important creative collaboration between the artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) and his muse, the dancer Jane Avril (1868–1943). Avril was one of the stars of Moulin Rouge in the 1890s, and was nicknamed ‘La Mélinite’ after a form of explosive. More
This catalogue accompanies an exhibition at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, and The Courtauld Gallery, London, which will be the first full display of the Courtauld’s outstanding collection of watercolours by J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851). The collection spans the artist’s career, ranging from an important early view of the Avon Gorge, Bristol, made when Turner was just sixteen years old, to examples of the monumental highly finished watercolours of his maturity and the celebrated expressive late works. More
This is the first book to consider Lewis’s drawing as a distinct contribution to his art, despite the importance he attributed to draughtsmanship. Lewis wrote that the line in drawing was nothing less than “the bone beneath the pulp”. “It is more difficult upon a piece of white paper ... to deceive the expert spectator than it is with a lot of oil paint upon a canvas.” This book traces his drawing from youthful figure studies and portraits to the surreal abstractions and dreamscapes of his later years. More
This catalogue presents a rich selection of Victorian drawings and watercolours from the important collection of The Courtauld Gallery, London. It features many previously unpublished works and ranges from informal preparatory drawings for paintings and sculptures to exquisite highly finished exhibition watercolours. More
As a result of generous loans of over one hundred outstanding works of art, in 2002 the Courtauld Gallery was able to extend its collection further into the twentieth century. For the first time the Gallery was able to show historically coherent groups of works representing key developments in the art history of the early 20th century. This is the catalogue to the new display. More
This book accompanies the new display of the Courtauld family silver collection in the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, which opened in June 2003. All the silver presented in the book was produced or hallmarked by three generations of the Courtauld family of goldsmiths. More
This book accompanied an exhibition which united La Loge for the first time with Renoir's other treatments of the subject and with loge paintings by contemporaries, including Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas. Concentrating on the early years of Impressionism during the 1870s, the book explores how these artists used the loge to capture the excitement and changing nature of fashionable Parisian society. More
This catalogue accompanied the first exhibition to bring together the seminal group of paintings of London building sites by Frank Auerbach (born 1931). Produced between 1952 and 1962, the paintings are among the most profound responses made by any artist to the post-war urban landscape. These works chart the early development of Auerbach’s remarkable approach to painting, for which he is celebrated as one of Britain’s greatest living artists. More
The Courtauld Gallery holds the finest group of works by Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) in Britain. This is the catalogue to an exhibition showing the entire collection together for the first time, marking the culmination of The Courtauld Institute of Art’s 75th anniversary. The importance of the collection lies not only in its exceptionally high quality but also in its wide range, with seminal paintings and rarely seen drawings and watercolours from the major periods of the artist’s long career. More
"The whole thing is a curatorial and scholarly triumph ... the catalogue essays do full justice to the power of Michelangelo's intellect, as well as to hand and eye" (Richard Dorment, Telegraph). Michelangelo's Dream (or Il Sogno) is one of the finest of all Italian Renaissance drawings and is amongst The Courtauld Gallery's greatest treasures. Executed at the height of the artist's career, this magnificent work exemplifies Michelangelo's unrivalled skill as draughtsman and his extraordinary power of invention. More
This is the first publication devoted to Walter Sickert’s remarkable group of paintings of female nudes produced in and around Camden Town between 1905 and 1912 and now considered to be among his most important and provocative works. More