Art & Design - Artist Biography

A little girl visits the home and garden of Claude Monet at Giverny, France, and learns about the artist's paintings and his life. The illustrations include photographs of the painter and his family as well as examples of his work. Review Quotes: "Linnea gives a solid lesson in art history...Her story is like a scrapbook reliving a trip she took to Paris and Giverny to learn about Monet's water-lily paintings. Airy, light-filled watercolors showing Linnea in Monet's environment are juxtaposed with period photographs of the art... read more

An intimate account of Jillian Becker's brief but extraordinary time with Sylvia Plath during the winter of 1963, the last month of the poet's life.

Drawing on exhaustive research from interviews and unpublished archival material, John Richardson has produced the long-awaited third volume of the definitive biography, full of original, groundbreaking new insights into Picasso's life and work. His lively and incisive analysis of the work meshes seamlessly with the rich and detailed narrative of this complex and sensual life. The Triumphant Years reveals Picasso at the height of his powers, producing not only the costumes and sets for such Diaghilev Ballets Russes productions as "... read more

In 1508, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The thirty-three-year-old Michelangelo had very little experience of the physically and technically taxing art of fresco; and, at twelve thousand square feet, the ceiling represented one of the largest such projects ever attempted. Nevertheless, for the next four years he and a hand-picked team of assistants laboured over the vast ceiling, making thousands of drawings and spending back-breaking hours on a scaffold fifty feet above the floo... read more

In 1863, the French painter Ernest Meissonier was one of the most famous artists in the world. The darling of the 'Salon' - that all important public art exhibition held biannually in Paris - he painted historical subjects in meticulous detail and sold his works for astronomical sums to collectors who included Napoleon III himself. Manet, on the other hand, was struggling in obscurity. Famous today as the father of Impressionism, when this books opens he was known only as the sloppy painter of a few much-derided canvases depicting ... read more

A subtle, insightful and lively biography of one of Europe's greatest artists, by one of the world's foremost living commentators on cultural history and the visual arts who is also a passionate admirer of all things Spanish. The starting point of this journey through Goya's life in 18th-century Spain is Hughes' own first encounter with the artist's work when he was a student in Australia. The remainder of the book charts the artist's entire career, describing his painted and graphic oeuvre within its historial context. Particu... read more

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Arthur Boyd's legacy is a collection of masterpieces that define the history of Australian art in the last century. But the man himself - enigmatic, inarticulate, modest - has remained in the shadows until now. Based on over six years of meticulous research and hundreds of interviews, Darleen Bungey sweeps us into the intimate circle of one of Australia's most fascinating families. Arthur Boyd emerges as a passionate, dramatic figure whose self-effacing demeanour cloaked a strong personality that refused to allow his turbulent and ... read more

Arthur Boyd's legacy is a collection of masterpieces that define the history of Australian art in the last century. But the man himself-enigmatic, inarticulate, modest-has remained in the shadows until now. Based on over six years of meticulous research and hundreds of interviews, Darleen Bungey sweeps us into the intimate circle of one of Australia's most fascinating families. Arthur Boyd emerges as a passionate, dramatic figure whose self-effacing demeanour cloacked a strong personality that refused to allow his turbulent and som... read more

The history of a painting told in pictures Revealed in more than four hundred paintings, photographs and illustrations this is an intimate look at the history of the world's most famous painting and the genius who created it. Ah, that smile we've all seen it hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of times. It graces the face of La Gioconda, or the Mona Lisa, as she is affectionately known - the world's most famous painting, created by Leonardo da Vinci around 1505. Five centuries later,the Mona Lisa has achieved celebrity status. S... read more

Enter the realm of Neil Curtis' childhood memories. His evocative paintings and powerfully simple narrative are intensely personal, yet speak to the child in us all. 'I was born in London on a snowy morning in January...not at all like the picture on the cover. I didn't mean this to be a book. It was meant for just me, drawing to remind me where I came from.' Neil Curtis has been drawing from the time he could hold a crayon. He has been illustrating ever since. His most recent picture book, Cat and Fish, written by Joan Grant, won ... read more

Do you know who designed the world s first platform shoes? Or who first used glue as a beauty aid? Eyewitness Leonardo Da Vinci takes a detailed look at the Renaissance period, revealing fascinating facts about the great artist as well as showing everyday life in an Italian city-state. Filled with superb full-colour photographs, this book brings the Renaissance period brilliantly to life. Who would guess that history could be this interesting?! First published 1999.

The Master Pearler

The first ever full biography of the famous WWII photographer, who was herself a legendary beauty, muse to Man Ray and friend of Picasso and other great artists Lee Miller was one of the most extraordinary photographers of the 20th century, famous for her portraits and her devastating photographs of World War Two - as well as for her legendary beauty. Miller was born in 1907 and in her early life moved from being an art student to a Vogue model to muse of Man Ray and the Parisian surrealists. In 1932 she started her own stu... read more

The first ever full-length biography of the unique woman who changed the face of pottery and epitomised the Art Deco movement. Clarice Cliff was one of the most significant ceramic designers of the twentieth century. Her work - a 'gargantuan feast of colour' - is avidly collected and is for many the epitome of Art Deco. From the first, Clarice Cliff refused limitations. When she started work in the Potteries before the First World War, she was just another factory girl with a rolled-up pinny in her pocket and nothing much expe... read more

The story of the creator of Rupert and his chums, Bill Badger, Algy Pug and Edward Trunk The result of many years careful and painstaking research, the author has pieced together the life of her godfather Alfred Bestall, who illustrated Rupert Bear in the Daily Express for 30 years. The artwork was bequeathed by Fred Bestall to the author with the words 'you will probably want to make a bonfire of this'. But Caroline Bott has lovingly collected together and catalogued Fred Bestall's work, which ranges from incisive cartoons for P... read more

'When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is'. Picasso said this in the 1950s, when he and Chagall were eminent neighbors living in splendor on the Cote d'Azur. But behind Chagall's role as a pioneer of modern art lay struggle, heartbreak, bitterness, lost love, exile, and the miracle of survival. Born the son of a Russian Jewish herring merchant, Chagall fled the repressive 'potato-colored' czarist empire in 1911 to develop his genius in Paris, living alongside Modigliani and Leger... read more

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio lived the darkest and dangerous life of any of the great painters. In the course of this life, Caravaggio created the most dramatic paintings of his age, using ordinary men and women to model for his depictions of classic religious scenes. This book shows how he created their drama, immediacy and humanity.

The first volume of this biography emphasized Picasso's Spanish roots from Malaga to Barcelona. This second volume covers ten pivotal years of Picasso's life. It describes his relationship with Cocteau, his affair with Fernande Olivier, and the influence of women on his art. First published 1996.

Between 1951 and 1961 the author lived in Provence at the Chateau de Castille with the brilliant but controversial art historian Douglas Cooper. This is a memoir of Richardson's ten years in the chateau, a ruined, colonnaded folly which became a private museum.