I enjoyed Jackie Wullschlager's new biography of #Monet so much I wrote this (glowing) review of it for @NWBylines, which extends the micro-review that appeared here a couple of weeks ago.
@ChrisMayLA6@bookstodon Thanks for the Review Chris. I’ll buy it for my Christmas Holiday lectures. After a Visit at Musee d’Orsay in Paris I need to know a little bit more about Monet and the Impressionism movement. I have a big deficit culture there.
Jackie Wullschlager wonderful Monet: The Restless Vision (2023) is the best #arthistory book I've read for a long time. Her account of Monet, his relations with 3 key women (two wives & a step daughter) & how they shaped his work, balances biography with a compelling/insughtful account of the development of his work. Like all good #art books this just makes you want to see his #painting in the flesh. I cannot recommend it highly enough
Like the 5 previous volumes in Michel Pastoureau's series of books on colour, White: The History of a Colour (2022) is a mixed bag. Its full of great insights & wonderful illustrations, but (unavoidably) repeats some aspects of the previous books & never really completely coheres into a focussed argument about white as a colour. That said, there is so much of interest, that you can forgive this (inevitable?) short-coming.
@ChrisMayLA6@bookstodon I think we should expose the mistakes of 'the greats' more, to tell people it's OK to be wrong sometimes. You can learn and carry on. I don't think Einstein was a great husband either.
Its no surprise John Barrell's The dark side of landscape (1980) is regarded as a #arthistory classic. In this discussion of Gainsborouh, Morland & Constable's depiction of the rural poor, Barrell produces a fascinating class analysis of #landscape painting in C18th/C19th. He also suggests Morland's relatively low reputation is partly the result of the sentimentalisation of is work by contemporary engravers, another interesting issue
Stunning Ancient Lod Mosaic With Message Of Approaching Danger To The Ship At Sea: During a rescue excavation in 1996 in the town of Lod, one of the most impressive mosaic floors in Israel was discovered! https://www.ancientpages.com/2023/08/14/lod-mosaic-with-message/
Sheila Barker's Artemisia Gentileschi (2022) (part of a new series on #renaissance#women#artists) is a well presented synthesis of current #arthistory scholarship, without getting bogged down in the detail of disagreements about attribution(s). While there are more comprehensive books on Gentileschii, as a nuanced introduction to a major artist's career & achievement (leavened with biographical detail) this will be hard to beat.
🎁 Looking for an original present for anybody curious to learn about the fascinating history of chess & its remarkable impact on culture, art, science, education, social advancement, prison reform and more?
FILM PAGE: ideasroadshow.com/chess/
BOOK PAGE: ideasroadshow.com/chessays/
Comparing Dore Ashton's Rosa Bonheur: A Life and a Legend (1981) with Jackie Wullschlager' recent biography of Monet (TWIBMR 110), while Ashton's book is efficient #arthistory, she seems unable to convey the vitality of the art to the reader (which may incite something about Bonheur's works, perhaps). But, nonetheless this is an interesting discussion of an (accidental) feminist working in the C19th (French) salon tradition.
This is where you will find all the information about the Associate Laboratory for Research and Innovation in Heritage, Arts, Sustainability and Territory, such as the Thematic Lines, ongoing Exploratory Projects and much more!
If you're interested in the relation between #painting & #photography, Barbara Savedoff's short(ash) Transforming Images: How Photography Complicates the Picture (2000) is worth reading. She explores the relations between #art & the photo, including some fascinating stuff on photographic reproductions' impact on #arthistory, although the warnings about #digital photography now seem commonplace. But still its full of great insights!