Duncan McLaren & Simon Marsden
Russia: A World Apart
Russia: A World Apart is a haunting evocation of the ruined country estates of the Russian aristocracy of the 18th and 19th centuries. Revolution, civil war, invasion, anarchy and casual indifference have conspired against many of the grand buildings of Russia’s rich and complex past which have perhaps suffered more than in any other country. While the architectural riches of the two great cities of Moscow and St Petersburg still exist for everyone to see, when photographer Simon Marsden and author Duncan McLaren entered the Russian countryside, away from the obvious tourist trails, they encountered a very different world.
Eskenazi Limited
A Dealer's Hand
As the West awakes, with some apprehension, to the economic power of that once-supine dragon, China, this richly sumptuous book is a timely reminder that its material culture has never failed to entrance and amaze those looking in from outside, no less over the 50 years covered here than in the more distant past…
Haboldt & Co.
SINGULAR VISION
Singular Vision. Haboldt & Co.’s Old Master Paintings and Drawings since 1983, a ravishing publication celebrating thirty years of dealing in Old Masters, will be published in late April 2012 by the respected Dutch dealer Bob Haboldt. The business was founded in New York in 1983 and today also has premises in Amsterdam and Paris. During these thirty years more than 2,000 paintings and drawings have passed through his hands and, in homage to these works of art, some 500 examples are illustrated in the book, many life-size.
The handsome publication is not only a personal record of Bob Haboldt’s career and the works he has handled along the way, but it is also an expression of what he finds most intriguing about these special paintings and drawings. Over twenty eminent scholars have contributed essays to the publication, a tribute to the esteem in which Bob Haboldt is held amongst his peers.
Paul Holberton Publishing
Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901
Accompanying the exhibition, Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901, at The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14 February to 26 May 2013 this catalogue tells the remarkable story of Pablo Picasso’s breakthrough year as an artist – 1901. It brings together an extraordinary group of paintings – today celebrated as being among Picasso’s most important and profound early works – to explore his rapid artistic development during this single year which launched his career and reputation in Paris.
Peter Lely: A Lyrical Vision
Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680) was Charles II’s Principal Painter and the outstanding artistic figure of Restoration England. When Lely arrived in England in the early 1640s his ambition was to be a painter of narrative scenes and not to work as a portraitist. However, the ‘subject pictures’ did not find favour with many English patrons and he produced less than thirty. As Lely’s friend Richard Lovelace explained, all they wanted was “their own dull counterfeits” or portraits of their mistresses. Thus, Lely was obliged to turn to portraiture to make a living. Yet, his poetic pictures of figures in idyllic landscapes are among the most beautiful paintings made in 17th-century England and this catalogue will be the first in-depth look at this important chapter of this major painter’s career.
ANDERS ZORN
Accompanying a major exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (28 February to 13 May 2013), this book re-evaluates the artistic achievement of Anders Zorn (1860-1920), one of the most significant artists of the Belle Époque but one who is still remarkably understudied.
Giovanni Bellini’s Dudley Madonna
The Madonna and Child, also known as the ‘Dudley Madonna’, was painted circa 1508 by Giovanni Bellini (Venice c. 1430-1516), one of the most celebrated of Italian artists. Recognised as an important composition by Bellini in the early 20th century, for a hundred years until its sale at auction in 2010 this picture had hardly ever been seen. For most of the world, this is an unknown masterpiece. This book places the painting within Bellini’s career and development even though he was over 75 when he painted it. Bellini was extraordinarily sensitive to the new generation of High Renaissance artists, responding instantly to new ideas. The publication also discusses the earlier critical fortune of the picture, explaining how it was kept out of the limelight for so long when it is clearly an autograph Bellini.
THE HAROLD SAMUEL COLLECTION
The Harold Samuel Collection is a unique collection of 17th-century paintings from Holland’s Golden Age. Bequeathed to the City of London in 1987 by Lord Samuel of Wych Cross (1912-1987), a wealthy property developer and philanthropist, this remarkable collection of 84 works – the finest collection of Dutch and Flemish art assembled privately in the UK in the last hundred years – enriches the splendour of the interior of the Mansion House, residence of the Lord Mayor of London. The bequest by Harold Samuel was described by Sir Robert Bellinger, the Lord Mayor at the time, as ‘the greatest gift of art ever conveyed to the Corporation of the City of London during the centuries of its existence’. The book marks the 25th anniversary of the handing over of the paintings to the City on 30 November 1987. Proceeds from the sale of the book will go towards the Lord Mayor’s Appeal which primarily supports the City Music Foundation, and the Harold Samuel Collection Fund, recently set up for the conservation and maintenance of the paintings.
MESROP OF XIZAN
Illuminator, painter, scribe, clerk, teacher, doctor of theology, restorer and binder, Mesrop was one of the greatest Armenian artists of his and following generations. He was prolific, working for at least forty-two years in Sos (New Julfa) from 1608 to 1651. This book will be the first serious study of the 46 of his manuscripts that have survived. The focus of the book, however, is The Four Gospels, one of the few manuscripts painted entirely by Mesrop’s hand and one of the most extensively illuminated in his oeuvre. It includes an extraordinary series of illuminations of both Old and New Testament scenes, with no less than twenty-three full page miniatures, and seventeen smaller miniatures.
VARTAN OF NAZARETH
Vartan of Nazareth: Missionary and Medical Pioneer in the Nineteenth-Century Middle East relates the little-known story of a medical hero who founded a hospital in Nazareth 150 years ago and records the remarkable achievements of Pacradooni Kaloost Vartan, the son of a poor Armenian tailor in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). Born in 1835 at a time of great change in the Ottoman Empire, the young Vartan attended the first American missionary school in the imperial city. He then joined the British army as an interpreter in the Crimea and, having witnessed the rigours of battlefield medicine, was drawn to a career as a surgeon and physician. The book recounts the story of his time in Edinburgh as a missionary medical student, his marriage to Mary Anne, a daughter of the Manse and, with the ink hardly dry on the marriage certificate, the young couple’s departure for Palestine.
LALIBELA: WONDER OF ETHIOPIA
The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lalibela in Ethiopia is one of the most extraordinary places in the world. It contains thirteen churches, not all of which were originally designed as such, which were hewn or carved from the native rock in imitation of buildings. The site has usually been dated to the 12th or 13th century when, according to legend, it was founded by King Lalibala, ruler of a newly revived kingdom, a number of centuries after the fall of the sacred capital Aksum which had converted to Christianity in the 4th century. However, nothing of its accepted or assumed history can be regarded as certain.
TOMBS OF PARADISE
The necropolis of Shah-e Zende in Samarkand represents a summit in the art of ceramic wall coverings in the Islamic world. Few studies have focused on the funerary ensemble of the Shah-e Zende and this is the first to describe these monuments, their decoration and the techniques and motifs, as well as the different types of ceramics used, and their composition.
FLIGHT AND THE ARTISTIC IMAGINATION
Accompanying a groundbreaking exhibition at Compton Verney, this book examines the human desire to transcend the limitations of physiology and gravity and to fly. Through paintings, sculpture, photographs, drawings, prints and video, including work by Leonardo da Vinci, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Paul Nash, Peter Lanyon and Mark Wallinger, the publication provides a unique overview of artists’ creative responses to flight, from the earliest imaginings to an era when space travel has allowed us to glimpse other worlds.
GOLD, JASPER AND CARNELIAN
The goldsmith and mineralogist Johann Christian Neuber (1736-1808) was one of the greatest masters of the gold objet – gold boxes, watchcases, chatelaines, etc. – which he decorated to splendid effect with semi-precious stones such as agate, jasper and carnelian. In 1769 he became director of the Grünes Gewölbe, the magnificent State Treasury in Dresden, and in 1775 was appointed court jeweller to the court of Saxony. Neuber’s work features enchanting landscapes, intricate floral designs and complex geometric patterns made out of tiny cut stones, incorporating Meissen porcelain plaques, cameos and miniatures. These highly individual objects are treasured in public and private collections all over the world today, but have never been brought together until now.
GOLD: POWER AND ALLURE
Few realise that gold can be found in Great Britain, or that attempts to exploit native sources have drawn prospectors from ancient Rome, via Elizabethan adventurers to current commercial projects in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In Gold: Power and Allure eleven essays by distinguished specialists tell of the rich and previously untold story of Britain and its relationship with gold, demonstrating the country’s unique golden heritage. Generously illustrated, the book features objects from the Ashmolean Museum, the Musée du Louvre, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, amongst others.
Master Drawings from The Courtauld Gallery
This beautiful and scholarly catalogue accompanies the exhibition Mantegna to Matisse: Master Drawings from The Courtauld Gallery, curated by Stephanie Buck, Martin Halusa Curator of Drawings at The Courtauld Gallery, and Colin B. Bailey, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator of The Frick Collection. The drawings provide a survey of the extraordinary draughtsmanship of Italian, Dutch, Flemish, German, Spanish, British and French artists active between the late Middle Ages and the early 20th century. The catalogue features works executed in a range of styles and for a variety of purposes, including preliminary sketches, practice studies, aide-mémoires, designs for other artworks, as well as drawings that were intended as independent works of art in their own right.
Renaissance and Baroque Silver, Mounted Porcelain and Ruby Glass from the Zilkha Collection
The Zilkha Collection is unlike any other. Formed by the well-known American entrepreneur, Selim Zilkha, its unifying theme is silver and luxury metalwork from the Renaissance and baroque periods. However, it is artistically wide-ranging and has been assembled with an exceptional eye for colour and form. It includes works from England, Germany, Italy and France and incorporates many other materials such as mother of pearl, exotic seashell, coconut and enamel. There are two special groups of mounted material within the collection: Chinese blue and white porcelain and German ruby glass.
- Fact Sheet (Renaissance and Baroque Silver, Mounted Porcelain and Ruby Glass from the Zilkha Collection)
- Images (Renaissance and Baroque Silver, Mounted Porcelain and Ruby Glass from the Zilkha Collection)
- Press Release (Renaissance and Baroque Silver, Mounted Porcelain and Ruby Glass from the Zilkha Collection)
The Noble Art of the Sword
Since the early Bronze Age the sword has been a sign of wealth, status and the power of divine right. Yet, before the 16th century the sword was almost never carried on the person in daily life. It was a rare, noble weapon, carried into battle by the aristocratic warrior class but set aside in time of peace. However, the increasing prominence of the Renaissance middle classes brought a fundamental change to the sword's place in society. Now large numbers of non-noble but often wealthy and upwardly mobile people could also afford fine clothes, jewellery and weapons.
ISABEL CLARA EUGENIA
The Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia (1566-1633), the eldest daughter of Philip of Spain, was one of the most significant female political players of the 17th century. Isabel, however, should not be seen as a political figure alone but also as a woman, embedded in the material culture of her times in manifold roles and through varied practices.
Jean de Carpentin's Book of Hours
In the 1470s, one of the most innovative artists working in Bruges illuminated a Book of Hours for Jean de Carpentin, lord of Gravile and a prominent citizen of Normandy. Known as the Master of the Dresden Prayer Book after one of his other masterpieces, this artist and members of his workshop enriched the pages of Carpentin’s manuscript with miniatures, historiated initials, and boldly coloured borders in which human figures, monsters and monkeys are framed by twisting branches of acanthus.
Spanish Drawings in The Courtauld Gallery: Complete Catalogue
Exploring the rich, intriguing and varied territory of Spanish drawings, this catalogue will serve as a comprehensive introduction to a field in which there is surprisingly little available in English.
Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes
This publication will be the only available English-language monograph to date on the High Renaissance sculptor Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi (c. 1455-1528), who earned the nickname ‘Antico’ with his highly refined reductions of Greco-Roman antiquities. His bronzes – many of which were produced at the brilliant court of Isabella d’Este at Mantua – were remarkable for being meticulously cast and finely cleaned and finished, designed for close appreciation in the privacy of a courtly studiolo. His black patination and exquisite detailing, such as gilded hair and silver-inlaid eyes, are characteristic.
Caravaggio’s Eye
This book concentrates on a few crucial years of Caravaggio’s development, in order to cast light on what made the artist such a revolutionary figure. It argues that this revolution was one of technique rather than style, and involved the sophisticated use of a camera obscura and so-called ‘burning’ or parabolic mirrors, exploiting new advances in glassmaking and optics. Because the results Caravaggio obtained by his new methods were so different, he created a sensation. These innovations were rapidly assimilated and the artistic establishment worked successfully to restore their way of doing things, so that the true novelty of his art in the 1590s has been obscured.
Casemate Athena to Distribute Western Art Books in USA
Paul Holberton publishing is delighted to announce that from 1 August 2011 Casemate Athena will be responsible for the distribution of Western art books in the United States of America
This Blessed Plot, This Earth
This beautifully designed book celebrates the career of Jonathan Horne MBE FSA (1940-2010), international authority on English pottery and for forty years a London dealer at the top of his field.
Food for the Flames: Idols and Missionaries in Central Polynesia
Twenty-five years after Captain Cook’s historic voyage, the London Missionary Society sent its first representatives to the South Seas landing on Tahiti in 1797. Their goal was to eradicate heathenism and idolatry but, unwittingly, they became agents for the preservation of Polynesian culture through their diligent recording of language and religious practices. REVIEW COPIES NOW AVAILABLE
Stanley Spencer and The English Garden
Spencer paints landscape as [the Pre-Raphaelites] did … with the same prodigious delight in all the facts of nature for their own sake. He loves to paint nettles and grasses leaf by leaf, blade by blade, as they did. He loves it all too much to leave anything out.
Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) is perhaps best known for his mystical biblical scenes and candid self-portraits, but it was his magnificent paintings of gardens, houses and landscapes, set in the small alleys and overgrown backyards of his home village of Cookham, which proved more popular during his lifetime. Published to accompany the exhibition Stanley Spencer and the English Garden at Compton Verney, Warwickshire, from 25 June to 2 October 2011, this book is the first to focus specifically on Spencer’s landscape paintings, and to consider them as a group, rather than as punctuation marks between the figure paintings. The artist’s depictions of suburban environments are examined in the context of the rapid urbanization that took place in the English countryside between the two world wars, and the enduring English obsession with gardens.
Twombly and Poussin
Although 350 years apart, the careers of Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Cy Twombly (1928-2011) followed parallel paths. Each artist arrived as a foreigner in Rome at the age of thirty, and stayed to become the leading painter of their respective eras. The two artists track each other across the centuries, setting up a dialogue that can inform how we see each of them: Twombly through Poussin, Poussin through Twombly. Out of such dialogues, revelations can come.
Regarding Thomas Rowlandson 1757-1827
This new biography of Thomas Rowlandson by James Payne and Matthew Payne is destined to become the standard work on this great British artist. In more than a decade’s research, using church and official records, newspaper reports, contemporary accounts, sales catalogues and, of course, the pictures themselves, the authors shed new light on Rowlandson’s family background, his education and art training in London and Paris, his Huguenot connections, his personal and professional associations, and his travels in Britain and abroad.
German Master Drawings
In late 2007 the National Gallery of Art, Washington, acquired one of the finest private collections of Old Master drawings, which had been passionately assembled by Wolfgang Ratjen (1943–1997) over three decades. This catalogue accompanies an exhibition at the National Gallery, Washington, from 16 May to 28 November 2010.
Johan Zoffany: Artist and Adventurer
To be published in December 2009 to mark the bicentenary of the artist’s death. Paul Holberton Publishing is pleased to announce the first comprehensive biography of the portrait painter Johan Zoffany, one of the leading figures of 18th-century British art.
“… And there was Sculpture”
“… And there was Sculpture” marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), the first avant-garde sculptor in Britain. The book is a comprehensive introduction to the young Epstein, a study of his personality, his art, his culture, his milieu, his domestic ménages, his Jewishness, his un-Jewishness, his vision, his lovers and again his art, for Epstein lived, starved and suffered all for his art.
William Orpen: An Onlooker in France
William Orpen was the only official war artist to publish an extensive memoir of his experiences in the Great War. This compelling narrative was first published in 1921 and reprinted in 1924 with additional illustrations. In this fully revised edition 97 paintings and drawings have been reproduced in colour and keyed to the narrative, resulting in a perceptive and poignant account by the artist.
Bernadette of Lourdes: Paintings by Greg Tricker
Foreword by Sister Wendy Beckett, Essay by Philip Vann
Publication Date: 12 November 2008
Masters and Pupils
This ground-breaking book is about a family tree. Dr Gert-Rudolf Flick traces the ‘apostolic succession’ from Perugino in Italy in the fifteenth century to Edouard Manet in France in the nineteenth, as one painter passed on his knowledge to the next generation. He shows how, over the centuries, the nature of artistic instruction changed, passing from the guild system and the individual workshop to the academy and elaborate institutions of state.
Prince Henry Revived
There can be few examples of more intensive fashioning and self-fashioning of a Renaissance figure than that of Prince Henry (1594–1612). Two decades after Roy Strong’s revelatory Henry Prince of Wales and England’s Lost Renaissance, this collection of essays re-examines the extraordinary artistic and cultural response to Prince Henry and presents many new findings in the context of recent scholarship.
Paul Holberton publishes Award Winning Catalogue
The sixth annual The Art Newspaper & AXA Art Exhibition Catalogue Award for the best exhibition catalogue of the year published in the UK and Eire has been given to Xanto: Pottery Painter, Poet, Man of the Italian Renaissance, published by Paul Holberton for The Wallace Collection.
Worth Press Limited
The Timeline History of Islamic Art and Architecture
The Timeline History of Islamic Art and Architecture by Professor Nasser D. Khalili, published by Worth Press in November 2005, is a major new work which provides a comprehensive overview of the arts of Islam for the general reader. Never before has there been a publication that brings every aspect of this vast subject together both geographically and chronologically.
