"J.M.W. Turner is probably the greatest painter Britain has ever produced. Both profoundly original and astonishingly prolific, he helped transform landscape painting into an expressive art form of enormous range and power. This book reveals the extent to which Turner wanted his paintings to communicate intellectually as well as emotionally; and how intensely involved he was with the culture of his times, using landscape as a vehicle for the deepest...

The story of modern art begins with a revolution--when the realists started rejecting romanticism in favor of depicting life as it really was. Since that movement began in the mid-19th century, painters have been rebelling, rethinking, deconstructing, and challenging notions of what art is. Filled with stunning reproductions of some of the world's greatest masterpieces, this reference book offers a chronological journey through artistic revolutions....

The perennially popular paintings of Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) have long been recognised as embodying the sophistication and elegance of Georgian England. The inventiveness and complexity of his techniques remain as dazzling today as they were to his contemporaries. He was among the first British artists to show his work in public exhibitions, and throughout his life he was committed to creating a modern art with modern subjects. Produced alongside...

With the rise of museums in the 19th century, including the formation in 1824 of the National Gallery in London, as well as the proliferation of widely available published reproductions, the art of the past became visible and accessible in Victorian England as never before. Inspired by the work of Sandro Botticelli, Jan van Eyck, Diego Velazquez, and others, British artists elevated contemporary art to new heights through a creative process that emphasized...

Publisher's description: Poet, painter, and engraver William Blake died in 1827 in obscure poverty with few admirers. The attention paid today to his remarkable poems, prints, and paintings would have astonished his contemporaries. Admired for his defiant, uncompromising creativity, he has become one of the most anthologized and studied writers in English and one of the most studied and collected British artists. His urge to cast words and images...