The Age of the Baroque in Portugal

The eighteenth century was a true golden age for the visual arts in Portugal. The discovery of fabulous deposits of gold, diamonds, and emeralds in Brazil suddenly made Portugal’s court the wealthiest in all of Europe, enabling patronage of the arts on a lavish scale. This handsome volume is the first major work in English to be devoted to this period of Portuguese art and history. Written by historians such as Kenneth Maxwell and specialists in art and architectural history such as Hellmut Wohl and Jennifer Montagu, the book tells the story of this unique age―its politics, society, and history. Focusing on the reigns of King João V, who ruled from 1706 to 1750, and King José I, who ruled from 1750 to 1777, the book reproduces and discusses more than one hundred works of art―including paintings, architecture, sculpture, furniture, ceramics, silver, jewelry, and textiles―that illustrate the extraordinary quality of Portuguese artistic production and patronage.

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

National Gallery Washington

Willem De Kooning: Paintings

This beautiful book presents a retrospective of eighty of Willem de Kooning`s finest paintings and painted works on paper. The book reassesses de Kooning`s critical status as one of America`s greatest and most influential artists, examines the complexity of his painting techniques, and places him in the context of other artists and art movements of his era. The book serves as the catalogue for a major exhibition of de Kooning`s work presented at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the Tate Gallery in London.

Willem de Kooning: Paintings

Shiff, Richard

Prather, Martha

SYLVESTER, David

Jan Steen (1626-1679) is one of the most admired and quintessential seventeenth-century Dutch painters. His repertoire included genre, portraits, refined images of upper-class life, and complex, witty comic narratives. He also painted religious and mythological scenes that vary from quiet and intimate to grand and melodramatic. In his brushwork he displayed an astonishing range, from extremely fine to remarkably loose, even within a single painting. Written by H. Perry Chapman, Wouter Th. Kloek, and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., with contributions by other noted art historians, this book draws on the most recent scholarship and archival research to reassess Steen within the context of seventeenth-century Netherlandish artistic, literary, and cultural movements. A translation of Arnold Houbraken's biography of Steen, written in the eighteenth century, is included, as well as a biographical essay that uses numerous contemporary sources to present the most comprehensive profile on Steen yet published. Other essays discuss Steen's relationship to the theater and to other Dutch painters of the time, his critical reception, and his varied self-portrayals. Fifty of Steen's paintings, chosen to demonstrate his consummate skill as both painter and storyteller, are catalogued in detail. This lavishly illustrated book is the catalogue for an exhibition of the works of Jan Steen, coorganized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Jan Steen: Painter and Storyteller

Wheelock Jr., Arthur K.

Kloek, Wouter Th.

Chapman, H. Perry

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

In the Light of Italy: Corot and Early Open-Air Painting

Prominent art historians Philip Conisbee, Sarah Faunce, Jeremy Strick, Peter Galassi, and Vincent Pomarede discuss the cultural, theoretical, and art historical background of this school of outdoor painting. They examine the early history of open-air painting, its theory and practice, the sites of Rome and southern Italy that were painted, and the delicate balance that existed among realism, memory and imagination. A rich selection of representative paintings is discussed and reproduced. The book is the catalogue for an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Strick, Jeremy

Conisbee, Philip

Faunce, Sarah

Biographies & Memoirs

Georges De LA Tour and His World

Presents a complete, illustrated overview of the work and world of the seventeenth-century French painter, exploring his development as a painter, the contemporary replication of his work, and the place of his art in his time. UP.

Georges de La Tour and His World

Hailed as the greatest Venetian painter after Titian, Lorenzo Lotto (c. 1480-1556) is known for a delightfully idiosyncratic artistic vision that has had special appeal for twentieth-century sensibilities. This book―which discusses Lotto’s life and work―explores the way his formal and iconographic experiments set him apart from the mainstream culture of his time. The volume describes and reproduces paintings in most of the genres in which Lotto worked, including devotional paintings, altarpieces, portraits, and mythologies. These are arranged in chronological order from his beginnings as a pupil of Giovanni Bellini through the brilliant work of his maturity on which his reputation was based, to the end of his career in a religious community on the Adriatic coast. Focusing on his autograph paintings, the book presents such masterpieces as Saint Jerome in the Wilderness and Portrait of Andrea Odoni. The authors―David Alan Brown, Peter Humfrey, Mauro Lucco, and other eminent scholars―draw on a large number of original documents, including Lotto’s will, his letters to a confraternity in Bergamo, and his meticulously kept account books. They discuss not only Lotto’s biography and inspiration but also his mastery of allegory, his possible sympathy with the Protestant Reformation, the patrons of his altarpieces, and the so-called Lotto carpets. This beautiful book is the catalogue for an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, d.c., that will run from 2 November 1997 to 1 March 1998. Published in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Lorenzo Lotto: Rediscovered Master of the Renaissance

Brown, David Alan

Humfrey, Peter

Lucco, Mauro

This beautiful book reproduces more than 120 paintings, drawings, pastels, sculptures, and prints of horses and scenes at the racecourse-all created by Edgar Degas. Examining for the first time Degas`s lifelong interest in the world of jockeys and horses, the book discusses the artist`s portrayals of people at the racing grounds and the importance of the horse as a source of his inspiration.

'Degas at the Races

Kimberly Jones

Jean Sutherland Boggs

Shelley Sturman

Daphne S. Barbour

More than three centuries after he created them, the exquisite, enigmatic paintings of Johannes Vermeer continue to intrigue. In this volume, scholars, conservators, and scientists investigate Vermeer`s art and the milieu in which he worked. They offer insight into the current state of understanding of the Dutch master`s art and focus special attention on the unique qualities of his paintings.

Vermeer Studies (Studies in the History of Art Series)

Individual Artists

Shows and describes Edo-period art, including screens, armor, woodblock prints, pottery, and kimonos

Edo: Art in Japan 1615-1868

National Gallery of Art (U.S.)

Robert T. Singer et. al.

Chinese archaeological discoveries of the last fifty years have transformed previous notions of the origins of Chinese civilization and art. This book presents an astonishing range of findings--more than 200 works of art in jade, stone, ivory, bone, pottery, bronze, lacquer, bamboo, gold, and silver from the period 5000 B.C. to 900 A.D.--that show how culture flowered not only in the Yellow River Valley but throughout ancient China. 
The book is 584 pages with 48 B&amp;W + 372 color illustrations and the book size is 9 5/8 x 12 1/8.

The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from The People`s Republic of China

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Books by National Gallery Washington