Gerard de Lairesse (1641-1711) was the most successful Dutch painter of his time, admired by the patricians of Amsterdam and the court of William iii of Orange. An eighteenth-century critic called him ‘undoubtedly the greatest genius there ever was in painting’.After a century of neglect his rehabilitation began in 1970 when the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum acquired a series of his monumental grisaille paintings. In an international exhibition (Cologne, Cassel, Dordrecht 2007) he was presented a...

200 years have passed since the founding of the Leiden Print Room, incorporated today into Leiden University Libraries. In celebration of that long, rich history this wide-ranging new publication presents a complete and varied survey of the Leiden collections, starting with rare drawings from the early sixteenth century and ending with recent acquisitions from just this past decade. From Jan Gossart and Barend van Orley to Carel Visser and Emo Verkerk, this work encompasses the history of two...

Photography was long regarded as a “middlebrow” art by the art institution. Yet, at the turn of the millennium it became the hot, global art of our time. In this book—part institutional history, part account of shifting photographic theories and practices—Alexandra Moschovi tells the story of photography’s accommodation in and as contemporary art in the art museum. Archival research of key exhibitions and the contrasting collecting policies of MoMA, Tate, the Guggenheim, the V&A, an...

The impact of the Great War and its aftermath on Belgian artistic life.World War I had a major effect on Belgian visual arts. German occupation, the horror at the battlefield and the experience of exile led to multiple narratives and artistic expressions by Belgian artists during and after the war. Belgian interbellum art is extremely vibrant and diverse. 14/18 - Rupture or Continuity takes a look at Belgian artistic life in the years around the First World War and how it was affected by this...

– Antonio Muñoz Molina, El País

"This wonderful and wise book made me look at the artwork without intimidation or any confusion. It is a great pleasure to be guided by the experienced eye of Alejandro Vergara."

— Olga Tokarczuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Throughout history, human beings have excelled at creating art of the highest quality. Aristotle wrote that Homer “surpassed all others” while Pliny the Elder referred to “masterpieces that we never tire of admiring�...

Aan de hand van beelden van vrouwen en mannen uit de hoogtijdagen van de Japanse prentkunst (1765–1865) gaat dit boek dieper in op de subtiele iconografie en de complexe symbolen die eigen zijn aan deze traditie. De intrigerende elementen verwijzen naar de Japanse geschiedenis, literatuur, mythologie, mode, folklore en roddels uit de Edo-periode en zijn soms moeilijk te onderscheiden, laat staan te vatten, zonder de juiste kennis.

A new look at the ways van Gogh represented the seasons and the natural world throughout his careerThe changing seasons captivated Vincent van Gogh (1853-90), who saw in their unending cycle the majesty of nature and the existence of a higher force. Van Gogh and the Seasons is the first book to explore this central aspect of van Gogh's life and

A new edition of a groundbreaking classic – one of the bestselling World of Art titles, updated for this urgent moment for women artists, and feminist history in general.

Small, smart, essential – an incisive overview of Surrealism, introducing the movement’s key artists and capturing its essential and enduring concepts.