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A beautifully illustrated guide to Rubens's two greatest landscape paintings. Rubens: The Two Great Landscapes is a handsomely illustrated monograph that brings together Rubens's two greatest landscape paintings: A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning and The Rainbow Landscape. Painted as pendants, the pair have been in London since 1803, when they were separated, the former eventually entering the collection of the National Gallery and the latter that of The Wallace Collection. The book puts the creation of these two landscapes into the full context of Rubens's later life and his semi-retirement. It demonstrates how they are the zenith of his achievements as a landscape painter and explor...
This publication lists over 5,000 scientific instrument makers and retailers working in the British Isles, together with a further 10,000 names of apprentices and associates. The directory transforms our understanding of the history of the scientific instrument-making trades in Britain. Each entry includes estimated working dates, specific trades, addresses, training, apprentices, types of instruments made and brief biographical details. As such this volume not only provides essential information for collectors, dealers, museum curators and scholars, but it will also have much to offer economic, social and family historians, with its evidence about master-apprentice links, trade connections and family relationships.
The Fitzwilliam Museum is not just the principal museum of the University of Cambridge but also one of the leading UK museums outside London. This book traces its story from the Museum’s origins in the 1816 bequest of Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion, up to the present day. At the same time it sets the Fitzwilliam’s individual story against the larger context of the growth and development of museums and galleries in the UK and further afield.The text and illustrations draw primarily on the rich and hitherto largely unpublished archives of the Fitzwilliam Museum, including the Syndicate Minutes,the reports of University debates published in the Cambridge University Reporter from 1870 on wards, compilations of earlier nineteenth-century documents,architectural plans and drawings, newspaper reports, letters, diaries, exhibition catalogues, photographs and other miscellaneous documents. With this material a substantial proportion of the narrative can be told through contemporary voices, not least those of the Museum’s thirteen Directors to date, each one a strong and influential character.
Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806) was one of the greatest French cabinetmakers of all time. From humble beginnings as a German immigrant in Paris, he found fame through the delivery of a magnificent roll-top desk to Louis XV in 1769 and went on to become Marie-Antoinette's favourite cabinetmaker, supplying the queen and the court of Louis XVI with sumptuous furniture of superb quality. Renowned for his exquisite marquetry and refined designs, his pieces were ornamented with spectacular gilt-bronze mounts made by some of the greatest metalworkers in Paris. In the nineteenth century, Riesener's name became associated with the very best of Louis XVI-period French furniture; his pieces continue to...
All in Good Time is the remarkable story of George Daniels (1926-2011), the master craftsman, who was born into poverty but raised himself to become the greatest watchmaker of the twentieth century. Daniels stands alone in modern times as the inventor of the revolutionary co-axial escapement, the first substantial advance in portable mechanical timekeeping over the lever escapement, which has dominated ever since its invention in 1759. Daniels's love of mechanics embraced not only the minute, however - he was also a passionate collector and driver of historic motorcars. This revised and expanded edition of his autobiography also contains a new section that illustrates and discusses over thirty of the pocket and wrist-watches Daniels himself made over the years. Witness here the triumph of intelligence, ingenuity, matchless skill and singularity of purpose over the most unpromising of beginnings.
Michelangelo - scuptor, architect, painter, poet and artist par excellence - was seen by his contemporaries as embodying the zenith of all artistic achievement. The book sets out to bring his genius closer and to make it more understandable. Here one can see details of his work in full-page pictures, many of which have been produced especially for the book. Michelangelo was the greatest sculptor who ever lived, recognised by his contemporaries as a genius and canonised even before his death. But this does help us either in understanding or approaching his work. Part of the difficulty lies in his complicated and demanding character which, after five centuries, is hard for the modern reader to...
Catherine the Great of Russia acquired art voraciously. Cosmetics magnate Helena Rubinstein collected African and Victorian glass. Couturier Coco Chanel amassed an enormous hoard of French eighteenth-century furniture. This fascinating book offers the first-ever look at these enterprising women -- along with Madame de Pompadour, Empress Josephine, Marjorie Merriweather Post, Gertrude Stein, Mary Cassatt and Peggy Guggenheim, among others -- and tells how they assembled significant and valuable collections of art, silver, jewelry, textiles, ceramics, photography, fossils and much more.
A scholarly, comprehensive study of the art of enamels in Europe, presenting examples from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth century. Demonstrates the extraordinary quality and scope of these exquisite works. This scholarly book contains comprehensive information on the art of enamels in Europe and England. It also examines the techniques and tools of enamelists and presents an overview of artists, patrons and sitters represented in this fine collection.