The Artist's Studio: A Cultural History – A Times Best Art Book of 2022

'Innovative and wide-ranging … James Hall’s breadth of reference - and choice of images - is impressive, from Greek red figure vases to Francis Bacon’s paint-encrusted and cluttered workspace via Renaissance workshops and the Victorian war chronicler Roger Fenton’s mobile photographic carriage … [the studio] has, as Hall persuasively argues, been integral in artists projecting themselves as being more than mere craftsmen' - The Times, Art Books of the Year
'Ambitious and accessible ... extremely readable, wonderfully illustrated, capacious in its reach and altogether a book to send the reader back to their favourite art with a new set of questions about exactly how and where it was made' - The Art Newspaper
'The Artist's Studio describes how a noisome cockpit of lust, crime and virtuosity produced innovations in how art gets made, and by whom. To you, me and the estate agent, a studio is the most pinched accommodation going, but in Hall’s drily entertaining survey, it has many mansions' - Guardian
'A thorough exploration of artists’ workspaces ... combines cerebral and beautifully illustrated argument with encyclopaedic information about artists, their working practices and their funny little ways' - Literary Review
'A comprehensive account of much more than the practice of art, and demonstrates how artists have influenced, as well as been affected by, their working spaces from the earliest time' - artbookreview
'Hall’s accounts of the changing nature of artists’ studios from Greek antiquity onwards are enthralling…' - Studio International
'An important study … a compelling narrative' - Elle Decor Italia
'James Hall’s learning is immense, yet he displays his expertise in this lively and entertaining survey of the artist’s studio without a hint of pedantry. Rather, his delivery is fresh and informal, and at times humorous' - Times Literary Supplement
'[A] smart object biography The Artist’s Studio, which follows a similarly vast project from the author on self-portraiture … Hall approaches his subject as a historian - although with the colloquial ease of years spent as a newspaper art critic' - Financial Times
'[A] thoroughly researched and well-illustrated book … Alongside the anecdotes are historical accounts, such as the professionalisation of modelling and the development of the portable painting box' - House & Garden
'A good read with ample illustrations… it’s a welcome addition to cultural histories that tell the story of art in new and interesting ways' - Hyperallergic
'An important book…Many of the works that Hall analyses and illustrates are very famous, but his point of view is always original' - David Ekserdjian, Il Giornale dell’Arte
'The author does not confine himself to the classic definition of the old master’s studio but takes in all manner of spaces from the goldsmith’s bench to the shoemaker’s workshop. Hall makes this range and diversity his strength, and out of this arises a fresh and unexpected take on the history of Western art' - World of Interiors
'Informative and enjoyable' - The Artist