This beautiful catalog from an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1992 is an excellent anthology of Seurat's work, juxtaposing finished works with sketches, and includes a large selection of sketches as a student. The size allows the works to be displayed in all their glory. If you like Seurat, buy this!

I felt that this book is the best overall catalog of the work of Stuart Davis. It includes an enormous amount of color and black and white pictures of his paintings and of himself. It also includes a good synopsis of his life and extrordinary career. If you need a book on Stuart Davis than this is the best.

Everybody is familiar with Norman Rockwell's paintings holding up a mirror to Middle America so it is not surprising that plenty of companies used his work to sell their products. This large, well designed and printed book has over two hundred color images of his commercial work. Each company has their logo and a brief history to accompany the paintings.

Norman was not responsible for how his work was used in the ads so his efforts on occaision get ruined by messy design, just have a look at the 1936 Cream of Kentucky bourbon ad on page 47. Generally though the advertisers wisely let his paintings do the job they paid him for.

The most surprising work to me were his paintings of children used on Kellogg's Corn Flakes boxes in the mid-fifties, they even carried his signature. I wonder how much a good condition box is worth now?

This is most likely the only book of his commercial work available so it worth adding to your Rockwell library.

Ruth Wood has specialised in Leader's life and work and has compiled a comprehensive illustrated catalogue raisonne of all his known works. She regularly authenticates Leaders works for the major fine art auction houses and private collectors. This is an excellent specialised read for the lovers of Victorian landscape painting.

Elizabeth Bishop was an elusive and multi-faceted woman. Gaining a glimpse of her through her poetry, some details through her prose, she has remained enigmatic, despite the many volumes of criticism and biography dedicated to her life and art. Her paintings show us another side of her creativity, and in "Exchanging Hats" we are provided with a greater depth of understanding of her creative abilities. The paintings themselves, spare and pragmatic, are as geographical and domestic as her poetry. More subtle than they first appear,they illuminate her life from a different perspective. For anyone interested in Bishop,this book is essential.

I had thought that Benson was strictly a painter of Victorian era young ladies in seaside settings. This bio (by a descendent) fleshes out his various careers as a painter of oils, a teacher, a water colorist and whatever is the correct term for one who creates etchings. Also provides a good overview of the American art scene (especially "The Ten") during the transition from the 19th to the 20th century.

Wonderful overview of Gainsborough's life in 18th century England. Highly recommend it if you are a Georgian art fan like I am.

When I was young I used to think that Tiepolo was a Renaissance painter.A contemporary of Raphael, I thought, perhaps a real live rival of Titian and Tintoretto. But as I found out this languorous painter was in reality an 18th C Venitian virtuoso. After a while, still in awe, I started to view him as a superb anachronism, and like he belonged, also, atop the Sistine Chapel somewhat.If Caravaggio astonishes with his inner turmoil. Tiepolo vis-a-vis seems to enjoy the purity of soul, of a monk. His brush seems pulled by a determined higher force. Christianity was sometimes his great medium, and he continuously uses every religious legend to express something divine that was in him, naturally. He is as pure as Praxiteles. And William Barcham deliniates Tiopolo's life as ordely and purposely as can be. The lucid preface, from Venice to Madrid. Tiepolo, a life, seemingly in a higher realm, dedicated to his art. But the many grandiose frescoes, beautifully illustrated here, don't need any words, really.

John W. McCoy (1910-1989) belonged to the realist school of American art. Enhanced with an informative commentary by Andrew Wyeth accompanying 75 reproductions in full color, John W. Mccoy: American Painter showcases a man's passion for painting as revealed in the words of his daughter by one who knew him best, his daughter, Anna B. McCoy. John W. Mccoy: American Painter will prove to be a popular and much appreciated addition to any personal, professional, academic, or community library American artists and art history collection.

Black and white and color pages capture her art while accompanying surveys reflect on her life, times and achievements. William Lieberman's Painters In Paris is distributed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and accompanies an exhibition of the same name of paintings by artists of the School of Paris. Works from the Metropolitan's collections trace painting history in France from 1895-1950. A recommended pick.

William Frederick Foster, portrait of a painter is a thorough, well written monograph on an outstanding painter and illustrator. As with all of Phyllis Barton's books and articles, one finds an in-depth study of her subjects. This book took over ten years of research to begin writing. Exhaustive studies were done from France to the National Archives. Foster was best known as an illustrator whose career was interrupted by World War I. Mrs. Barton has interviewed many people who were connected to Foster in some way - even locating his favorite model, his daughter and others who knew him. She has examined letters and tried also to see all existing paintings. He was best known for figural work, but did occassional landscapes and even some mural work in co-operation with Willy Pogany at the little known Hearst Estate of Wintoon near Mt. Shasta and the McCloud River. One can learn a lot from studying the draftsmanship and deft painterly technique of the rogueish Foster. Three Foster paintings are in the Gardena High School collection in Gardena, California and were purchased by students as graduating gifts to the school many years ago when the students held Purchase Prize Exhibitions. An interesting note is that just today, I heard of a Foster painting that has been returned to Los Angeles City College after being held by someone to protect it for many years. This one is one of the rare landscapes Foster did. I have not seen it yet, but intend to soon. A final note on this brief coment is that the author Phyllis Settacase Barton died on April 12, 2000 after a long illness with cancer. Her ninth book: The Pictus Orbis Sambo ( a critical study and publishing history of the Story of Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman) was published in Dec. 1999 for the centennial of that book and details over 300 illustrators who illustrated it plus much, much more. Some other books by Ms. Barton are Cecil Bell (ashcan school artist), Sassone (Marco), and Dizurski. She also wrote many articles for Southwest Art Magazine.