Edmund Swinglehurst (1917–2005)

This excellent little book takes you through nearly 50 pictures all by different European artists, from Jan Bruegel to Ben Nicholson, some famous some less so, and shows how landscape painting has developed over the years. Some of the reproductions are over two pages and very pleasant to look at. The text is kept to a minimum but is all well presented. A joy!

I read this after reading the Landscapes one and found it very good but a little less satisfying. Firstly, I don't think that seascapes is as easily definable genre as landscapes (I notice two of the paintings are entitled landscape). Further, here the artisits tend to be less well known (ast least to me) and I notice that several have more than one painting in the book. VEry enjoyable, however.

I know that the "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood" are a group of artists that you either love or hate. I must declare myself in that I am placed firmly in the former. This slim volume gives a good introduction to the lives and works of many of the members of this group and includes quite a selection of works that made them famous.Among these are Holman Hunt's 'The Scapegoat, Dante Gabriel Rossetti's 'The Lady of Pity' and 'The Day-Dream', Burne-Jones 'The Knights and the Briar Rose' and 'King show more Cophetua and the Beggar Maid. show less

A book designed to show how Britain has developed over the past hundred years.
It is packed with over 350 photos, most of them taken around the turn of the 20th century. Despite the promising front cover, however fewer than 30 or 40 could be described as before and after pictures which was a little disappointing for me. Out of these, the photographer seems to have taken little care to actually place his camera in the exact same position in order to give the greatest effect for show more comparison.
Don't get me wrong, it is a nice enough book, substantial enough to give hours of nostalgic pleasure. It's just I expected more of a 'Then and Now' type book. show less