A Pocket Guide to
Victorian Artists and Models
by Russell James
Published by Remember
When
(an imprint of Pen
& Sword)
ISBN 184468095-9
Recommended Price £12.99
216
pages fully illustrated
This
fascinating guide book covers some 400 Victorian artists, from the famous to
the long forgotten, from the classical to the advanced – and, unlike many art
books, it’s fun and entertaining, looking as much at the artists’ lives as at
their canvases. Who were they? How did they live? Why do we today warm to 19th
century art, delighting in it more than we like art from any other century,
including our own?
By the
time Victoria died, the nation’s top artists, like modern pop stars, were
fabulously rich, lived in mansions, and surrounded themselves with luxury. Others, outside the top bracket, struggled or
starved; some drank themselves to death, some overdosed on drugs, others died
lonely and disillusioned. Some had
tangled love affairs, a few of which were played out and lapped up by the
public.
Most art
books ignore artists’ models, despite their being close, often intimately
close, to the artists who painted them.
But in this book they are brought out into the light, and their stories,
along with those of the artists who immortalised them, are brought back to life
– in all their original vibrant colours!
Contents include:
INTRODUCTION
THE PRE-RAPHAELITES – Back to the Future
PORTRAITURE – A Good Likeness
LANDSCAPE – The World About Us
MARINE PAINTING – Our English Coasts
GENRE – Work & Everyday Life
ANIMAL LIFE – The Pretty Baa-Lambs
HISTORICAL – Great Moments in History
FOREIGN CLIMES – Religion and Palestine
NEOCLASSICISM – In the Tepidarium
(Now, That’s What I Call a Picture)
SCULPTURE – Portraits in Stone
FANTASY & SYMBOLISM – The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke
DECORATIVE & AESTHETIC –Fin de siècle, Still
Life, Nudes
A CENTURY OF BLACK & WHITE – Printmakers, Engravers &
Caricaturists
ILLUSTRATION – Art for the Millions
ARTISTS AND MODELS – Close Relationships
WHERE TO SEE THE PICTURES
INDEX OF THE ARTISTS