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The Essence of Art

Victorian Advice on the Practice of Painting

Craig Harrison editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:5th Jun '19

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

This hardback is available in another edition too:

The Essence of Art cover

First published in 1999, this book asks what kind of advice was available to somebody wishing to embark upon oil painting in England between 1850 and 1900.

It is a fascinating collection of Victorian instruction on how and what to paint, linked to crucial advice about art, its meaning and its relation to contemporary life, given by practising artists, important and often popular in their time, but whose lectures and writings are long overdue for reappraisal: Leslie, Hamerton, O’Neil, Poynter, Watts, Leighton, Armitage, Quilter and Herkomer.

Here, beyond the familiar voices of Ruskin, Whistler and Pater, we have a whole range of experience from an age in which issues about painting were hotly debated by large numbers of people: professional artists, amateurs, critics, gallery-goers and Academy students. This anthology brings back to life the humour, seriousness, ambitions, eccentricities and controversies of people whose work shaped the nature of mainstream Victorian art.

ISBN: 9781138342231

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 500g

177 pages