A brand-new perspective on early modern art and its relationship with nature as reflected in this moving account of overlooked artistic genius Adam Elsheimer, by an outstanding writer and critic. 
Seventeenth-century Europe swirled with conjectures and debates over what was real and what constituted “nature,” currents that would soon gather force to form modern science. 
Natural Light deliberates on the era’s uncertainties, as distilled in the work of long underappreciated artist Adam Elsheimer (1578–1610), a native of Frankfurt who settled in Rome and whose diminutive and mysterious narrative compositions related figures to landscape in new ways, projecting unfamiliar visions of space at a time when Caravaggio was polarizing audiences with his radical altarpieces and early modern scientists were starting to turn to the new “world system” of Galileo. His visual inventions influenced many famous artists―including Rembrandt van Rijn, Claude Lorrain, and Nicolas Poussin. 
Julian Bell guides the reader through key Elsheimer artworks, examining the contexts behind them before exploring the new imaginative thoughts that opened up in their wake. He also explores the experiences of Elsheimer and other Northern artists in the literary, artistic, and scientific culture of 1600s Rome. 
Although his life was tragically short, Elsheimer’s legacy endured and prints of his work were widely spread throughout Europe, with his influence extending as far as the Indian subcontinent. 106 color illustrations

Natural Light: The Art of Adam Elsheimer and the Dawn of Modern Science

Arts & Photography

Bell, Julian

History & Criticism

Thames&Hudson

Surprising, questioning, challenging, enriching: the Pocket Perspectives series presents timeless works by writers and thinkers who have shaped the conversation across the arts, visual culture, and history. Celebrating the undiminished vitality of their ideas today, these covetable and collectable little books embody the best of Thames & Hudson.

Julian Bell on Painting (Pocket Perspectives, 1)

Mirror of the World: A New History of Art

A vivid and compelling history of human artistic achievements, from the first stone fashioned into a figure by a hunter-gatherer to the latest new media and installation work.
With remarkable clarity, Julian Bell tells the story of how art has evolved through the millennia and across the world. He follows the changing trends in the making and significance of art in different cultures, and explains why the art of the day looked and functioned as it did. Key images and objects-some of them familiar works of art; others, less known but equally crucial to the story-act as landmarks on the journey, focal points around which the discussion always centers. Along the way, Bell answers fundamental questions such as "What is art and where does it start?" and "Why do humans make it and how does it serve them?"
Previous histories tended to focus only on the masterpieces of Western art, in the process excluding the work of women or non-Western artists, or else considering developments around the world as separate, unrelated phenomena. Bell's achievement is to take a global perspective, bringing the distinct stories together in one convincing narrative. He draws insightful and inspired connections between different continents and cultures and across the millennia, which results in a rich and seamless introduction to the world of visual creativity.
Hundreds of carefully selected illustrations show how artists from different ages and societies often shared the same formal, technical, and aesthetic concerns, while others took divergent paths when their vision dictated it.
Julian Bell, himself a well-known painter, is the grandson of Vanessa and Clive Bell, key members of the celebrated Bloomsbury group of writers and artists. His books include What is Painting?.

Julian Bell’s incisive, fully updated study of modern art and the nature of painting, which daringly tries to explain it
“Yes, but is it art?” This lucid book by Julian Bell, himself a painter, confronts the uncertainty many people feel about art today and challenges generally accepted ideas.
Now in a completely revised second edition, What is Painting? is a fresh, focused look at painting. Bell addresses questions such as “does anything unite those objects we call paintings?” and “what factors have changed the nature of painting over the last two centuries?” by looking at historical evidence and reasoning from common experience. The current shape of painting pushes the book’s arguments in new directions and a substantial new chapter, The Arts and Art, speaks to the interplay between 2D work, 3D work, and the immateriality of digital imagery. The text has been revised paragraph by paragraph considering both force of presentation andr /&gt;historical perspective. The intention is to provide a general reader’s introduction to theories of painting that is not only reliably informative but stimulating and amusing to read. The book is an introductory guide to art theory for everyone interested in understanding modern art or in making art themselves. 170 color illustrations

What is Painting?: New Edition

A study and explanation of modern art and the nature of painting

What is Painting?: Representation and Modern Art

Van Gogh: A Power Seething (Icons)

"I believe in the absolute necessity of a new art of colour, of drawing and—of the artistic life," Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo in 1888. "And if we work in that faith, it seems to me that there's a chance that our hopes won't be in vain." His prediction would come true. In his brief and explosively creative life—he committed suicide a few years later at the age of thirty-seven—Van Gogh made us see the world in a new way. His shining landscapes of Provence and somber portraits of workers shattered the relationship between light and dark, and his hallucinatory visions were so bright they nearly blinded the world.
He was a great writer as well. In his six hundred–plus letters to Theo he chronicled with heartbreaking urgency his mental breakdowns, acrimonious family relations, and struggles with art dealers, who largely ignored him until the last years of his life. Shading this dark story is the artist’s acquaintance with prostitutes and penury, stormy scenes with his friend Paul Gauguin, and dissipated Parisian nights with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Julian Bell’s passion for his subject brings the painter to life. Bell writes with slashing intensity, at once scholarly and defiantly partisan. “I have written this book out of my love for Vincent van Gogh, the uniquely exciting painter, and Vincent van Gogh, the letter writer of heart-piercing eloquence,” he declares. For Bell, Van Gogh was an artistic genius and more: he was a wonder of the world.

New Harvest

Bonnard is acknowledged as a master of modern art, following in the tradition of the Impressionists. He is best known as a painter of intimate, domestic interiors but he was also a highly accomplished draughtsman who produced a wealth of lithographs and drawings. This volume illustrates the full range of his output, from his early works inspired by Japanese prints, to the richly coloured works of his later years.

Bonnard: Colour Library

Individual Artists

Phaidon Press

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) is acknowledged as one of the great masters of modern art, following in the tradition of the Impressionists. He is best known as a painter of intimate, domestic interiors but he was also a highly accomplished draughtsman who produced a wealth of lithographs and drawings. The book illustrates the full range of his output from his early works inspired by Japanese prints to the rich and dazzling works of his later years which have ensured his reputation as one of the twentieth century's great colourists. With its lavish illustrations this book provides an excellent introduction to a brilliant artist.

Bonnard (Phaidon Colour Library)

Phaidon Inc Ltd

Taking its inspiration from the Phaidon volume published in 1937 with the same title, this book presents, without commentary, 500 of the world's greatest self-portraits, arranged in a chronological sequence from ancient Egypt to the late 20th century. Included are works by many of the world's greatest painters and sculptors, such as Durer, Rembrandt, Picasso and Andy Warhol. Each image is both a work of art and a study in psychology and self-perception - an idea taken up by the book's mirrored jacket, where the reader's own face becomes the 501st self-portrait.

500 Self-Portraits

Presents a collection of self-portraits, in chronological order, from ancient Egypt to the present day.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bell, Julian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bell, Julian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bell, Julian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Natural Light: The Art of Adam Elsheimer and the Dawn of Modern Science

Julian Bell on Painting (Pocket Perspectives, 1)

Mirror of the World: A New History of Art

What is Painting?: New Edition

What is Painting?: Representation and Modern Art

Van Gogh: A Power Seething (Icons)

Bonnard: Colour Library

Bonnard (Phaidon Colour Library)

500 Self-Portraits

500 Self-Portraits