History of art & design styles: c 1800 to c 1900 – The Bell Bookshop

Borrowed landscapes

Emma — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A beautifully illustrated exploration of the impact of Chinese and Japanese material culture on the historic houses and gardens of Britain and Ireland. The art and ornament of China and Japan have had a deep impact in the British Isles. From the seventeenth century onwards, the design and decoration of interiors and gardens in Britain and Ireland was profoundly influenced by the importation of Chinese and Japanese luxury goods, while domestic designers and artisans created their own fanciful interpretations of ‘oriental’ art. Those hybrid styles and tastes have traditionally been known as chinoiserie and japonisme, but they can also be seen as elements of the wider and still very relevant phenomenon of orientalism, or the way the West sees the East.Illustrated with a wealth of new photography and published in association with the National Trust, Borrowed Landscapes is an engaging survey of orientalism in the Trust’s historic houses and gardens across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Drawing on new research, Emile de Bruijn demonstrates how elements of Chinese and Japanese culture were simultaneously desired and misunderstood, dismembered and treasured, idealised and caricatured.

Inventing photography

Emma — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

William Henry Fox Talbot is celebrated today as one of the English inventors of photography. He made early photographic experiments in the 1830s, released the details of his photogenic drawing process in January 1839, and introduced important innovations to the medium in the 1840s and 1850s.Drawing on archive material in the Bodleian Library, including three albums given by Talbot to his sister, Horatia Feilding, as well as his illustrated books, Sun Pictures in Scotland and The Pencil of Nature, this volume shows how Talbot was continually inventing photography anew. A selection of eighty full-page plates provides a thematic survey of Talbot’s work, reproducing images that document his travels, his home and his family, as well as his intellectual interests, from science to literature to ancient languages.An illustrated introduction places Talbot’s work within the context of a modernising Britain, as well as within his own social and intellectual milieu, and explores how the competing daguerreotype process spurred Talbot to improve his own techniques and seek new functions and uses for paper-based photographs.This evocative selection is testament to Talbot’s constant quest for new photographic advances, offering a compelling window into the archives of an extraordinarily determined and creative man.

The vanished collection

Emma — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A charming and heartfelt story about war, art, and the lengths a woman will go to find the truth about her family. ‘As devourable as a thriller… Incredibly moving’ Elle ‘Pauline Baer de Perignon is a natural storyteller – refreshingly honest, curious and open’ Menachem Kaiser ‘A terrific book’ Le PointIt all started with a list of paintings. There, scribbled by a cousin she hadn’t seen for years, were the names of the masters whose works once belonged to her great-grandfather, Jules Strauss: Renoir, Monet, Degas, Tiepolo and more. Pauline Baer de Perignon knew little to nothing about Strauss, or about his vanished, precious art collection.But the list drove her on a frenzied trail of research in the archives of the Louvre and the Dresden museums, through Gestapo records, and to consult with Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano. What happened in 1942? And what became of the collection after Nazis seized her great-grandparents’ elegant Parisian apartment?The quest takes Pauline Baer de Perignon from the Occupation of France to the present day as she breaks the silence around the wrenching experiences her family never fully transmitted, and asks what art itself is capable of conveying over time.

Starry Night

Emma — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Starry Night is a fascinating, fully illustrated account of Van Gogh’s time at the asylum in Saint-Remy, during which he created some of his most iconic pieces of art.

Despite the challenges of ill health and asylum life, Van Gogh continued to produce a series of masterpieces - cypresses, wheatfields, olive groves and sunsets during his time there. This fascinating and insightful work from arts journalist and Van Gogh specialist Martin Bailey examines his time there, from the struggles that sent him to the asylum, to the brilliant creative inspiration that he found during his time here.

He wrote very little about the asylum in letters to his brother Theo, so this book sets out to give an impression of daily life behind the walls of the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole and looks at Van Gogh through fresh eyes, with newly discovered material.

An essential insight into the mind of a flawed genius, Starry Night is indispensable for those who wish to understand the life of one of the most talented and brilliant artists to have put paintbrush to canvas.

Letters to Camondo

Emma — Thu, 02 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

From the author of the bestselling phenomenon The Hare with Amber Eyes

As you may have guessed by now, I am not in your house by accident. I know your street rather well.

The Camondos lived just a few doors away from Edmund de Waal’s forebears. Like de Waal’s family, they were part of belle époque high society. They were also targets of anti-Semitism.

Count MoÃ¯se de Camondo created a spectacular house filled with art for his son to inherit. Over a century later, de Waal explores the lavish rooms and detailed archives and, in a haunting series of letters addressed to Camondo, he tells us what happened next.

‘Illuminating… A wonderful tribute to a family and to an idea’ Guardian

‘Letters to Camondo immerses you in another age… Dazzling’ Financial Times

Letters to Camondo

Emma — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

‘*A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021*

‘Consistently illuminating… considered, compassionate and appreciative… This book is a wonderful tribute to a family and to an idea’ Guardian

63 rue de Monceau, Paris
Dear friend,
As you may have guessed by now, I am not in your house by accident. I know your street rather well.

Count MoÃ¯se de Camondo lived a few doors away from Edmund de Waal’s forebears, the Ephrussi, first encountered in his bestselling memoir The Hare with Amber Eyes. Like the Ephrussi, the Camondos were part of belle époque high society. They were also targets of anti-semitism.

Camondo created a spectacular house and filled it with the greatest private collection of French eighteenth-century art for his son to inherit. But when Nissim was killed in the First World War, it became a memorial and, on the Count’s death, was bequeathed to France.

The Musée Nissim de Camondo has remained unchanged since 1936. Edmund de Waal explores the lavish rooms and detailed archives and uncovers new layers to the family story. In a haunting series of letters addressed to the Count, he tells us what happened next.

‘Letters to Camondo immerses you in another age… de Waal creates a dazzling picture of what it means to live graciously’ Financial Times

The Van Gogh Sisters

Emma — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The lively and revealing correspondence that Vincent van Gogh maintained with his art-dealer brother Theo is famous as a source of insight into the mind of one of the most celebrated artists of all time. But what of Anna, Lies and Willemien van Gogh, with whom Vincent had intimate and sometimes turbulent relationships? It was an argument with his oldest sister, Anna, in the aftermath of their father’s death that provoked Vincent to leave the Netherlands and never return.

The Van Gogh siblings grew up at a time when long-distance travel by train first became possible. As each went their own way, following work and study to London, Paris, Brussels and beyond, they maintained the close relationships forged in their youth in the Netherland’s idyllic countryside by sending candid and personal letters. In this thoughtful and unprecedented biographical history, Willem-Jan Verlinden delves into previously unpublished correspondence in the Van Gogh family archives to bring Vincent’s three sisters out from their brothers’ shadow, poignantly portraying their dreams, disappointments and grief. The oldest sister, Anna, worked as a governess in England as a young woman before marrying a Dutch industrialist. The second sister, Lies, fell into poverty in spite of her literary aspirations and was forced to sell many of her brother’s paintings. Willemien, the third sister, was an active participant in the first feminist wave. She visited the studio of Edgar Degas in Paris with Theo and discussed art enthusiastically with her painter brother. She and Vincent also shared their struggles with mental health, which for Willemien resulted in institutionalization for the second half of her life.

With great clarity and empathy, The Van Gogh Sisters captures a moment of profound social, economic and artistic change. The sisters’ intimate discussions of poetry and books, love, personal ambition and the opportunities afforded them broaden our understanding of this dramatic era in European history when the feminist movement was emergent and idealists of all stripes climbed the barricades in pursuit of revolution.

With 132 illustrations, 21 in colour

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Emma — Sat, 01 Apr 1995 00:00:00 +0000

The sumptuous paintings of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema reveal more about nineteenth century values than those of any other artist of the era. Featuring work from private and public collections this book reproduces some of Alma-Tadema's finest work.