Millet To Matisse

The City of Glasgow possesses an internationally renowned collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. This magnificent book, the catalogue for a major exhibition, features sixty-four of the finest paintings in this collection, including important works by Rousseau, Corot, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Picasso, Derain, Matisse, and Rouault. The lavishly illustrated book provides a short essay on each work as well as full catalogue details. There are also four introductory essays by prominent scholars that set the paintings in context. Irene Maver examines the social, political, and economic environment of Glasgow from its beginnings until the First World War; Frances Fowle charts the taste for French art in the west of Scotland during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century; Hugh Stevenson explores the early history of the city's collection and its assimilation of contemporary French paintings; and Belinda Thomson discusses how Glasgow's collection relates to the wider historical context of French painting of the period.

Astonishing and essential, the biography that reclaimed Henri Matisse from history's slanders and restored his place in the canon of the 20th century's greatest artists Before acclaimed biographer Hilary Spurling turned her attention to Henri Mattise, precious few facts were known about his life - and those few were distorted by inaccuracy, misunderstanding and glaring gaps. The Unknown Matisse investigates the secret life of The Wild Beast (as he was known), whose early paintings shocked and enraged his contemporaries. It tells the story of an innovative genius, born in war-torn, poverty-stricken Flanders who finally overcame hardship and disaster to fulfil Van Gogh's prophecy: 'The painter of the future will be such a colourist as has never yet been.'

The Impressionists are world renowned for their vibrant depictions of the atmospheric effects and shimmering beauty of the French countryside. These paintings, often produced in Paris, found an enthusiastic market in the city. The inhabitants of that hub of modernity had an apparently paradoxical interest in the mythologies of rural living. As the city became more and more the motive force of social change so the country was understood as the anchor of changelessness and nostalgia. The essayists in this volume examine the complex relationship between country and city. Their work draws widely on the contemporary culture exploring folklore and children's literature, anarchism and urbanism, and offers significant new insights into the work of major artists and writers including Courbet, Millet, Monet, Van Gogh and Zola.

* A beautiful introduction to the art of the Impressionists and post-Impressionists, written by one of the foremost experts in the field* Includes a number of rarely seen works* Filled with full-page images* Forms an accessible introduction, underpinned by high levels of scholarshipA vibrant, colourful and beautiful book that introduces readers to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. It explains the difference between the two movements and the main artists associated with each. Illustrations are drawn from the renowned and outstanding collection of French art held by the National Galleries of Scotland and they include a number of rarely seen works. The book tells the fascinating stories of how key paintings and drawings found their way into the collection. Artists include Monet, Millet, Gauguin, Bastien-Lepage, Charles Jacque, Troyon, Corot, Degas, Seurat, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Vuillard, Bonnard, Derain, Matisse, Legros and Rodin

The compelling story of how Vincent van Gogh developed his audacious, iconic style by immersing himself in the work of others, featuring hundreds of paintings by Van Gogh as well as the artists who inspired him—from the New York Times bestselling co-author of Van Gogh: The Life “Important . . . inspires us to look at Van Gogh and his art afresh.”—Dr. Chris Stolwijk, general director, RKD–Netherlands Institute for Art History Vincent van Gogh’s paintings look utterly unique—his vivid palette and boldly interpretive portraits are unmistakably his. Yet however revolutionary his style may have been, it was actually built on a strong foundation of paintings by other artists, both his contemporaries and those who came before him. Now, drawing on Van Gogh’s own thoughtful and often profound comments about the painters he venerated, Steven Naifeh gives a gripping account of the artist’s deep engagement with their work. We see Van Gogh’s gradual discovery of the subjects he would make famous, from wheat fields to sunflowers. We watch him experimenting with the loose brushwork and bright colors used by Édouard Manet, studying the Pointillist dots used by Georges Seurat, and emulating the powerful depictions of the peasant farmers painted by Jean-François Millet, all vividly illustrated in nearly three hundred full-color images of works by Van Gogh and a variety of other major artists, including Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, positioned side by side. Thanks to the vast correspondence from Van Gogh to his beloved brother, Theo, Naifeh, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is able to reconstruct Van Gogh’s artistic world from within. Observed in eloquent prose that is as compelling as it is authoritative, Van Gogh and the Artists He Loved enables us to share the artist’s journey as he created his own daring, influential, and widely beloved body of work.

This beautiful and fascinating volume follows Henri Matisse on his journeys into the South of France, where he discovered the light and color that saturate his work. Part biography, part travel guide, it explores the painter's private life, artistic evolution, and relationships with the places that inspired him. The book begins in Paris and then moves to the fashionable St. Tropez, the fishing village of Collioure, chic Nice, the medieval refuge of Vence, and luxurious Cimiez. In each location, the author visits the villas and studios where Matisse lived and worked, and explains how his art responded to the palette and ambiance of the local landscape.