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Exploring the treasures of the Vatican’s museums, palaces and the Basilica of St Peter, this set of 100 cards covers ancient sculpture and details of Renaissance architecture as well as frescos and paintings by Michelangelo, Raphael, Fra Angelico, Titian, Caravaggio, Poussin and many others. Each card measures 162 x 162 mm, with a reproduction or photograph on one side and a description of the work by the art historian Anja Grebe on the reverse. Boxed set.

Monet at Giverny, Renoir at Les Collettes, the American Impressionist Childe Hassam in Celia Thaxter’s garden at Appledore, and, contemporary with the Impressionists, Gertrude Jekyll’s creation of Munstead Wood; these are among the artists and the inspirational gardens described and illustrated – by both paintings and photographs – in this unusual study.

The Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society was founded in 1995 to record the flora of this historic botanic garden. It has since generated an extensive archive of meticulously executed artworks and this volume reproduces over 70 watercolours by the finest contemporary illustrators. Ranging from ferns and flowers to woodland trees, each full-page illustration is accompanied by notes about the plant and its use in traditional and modern medicine.

Focusing on trees, flowers and seascapes, this illustrated manual explains how to identify the elements of a scene that capture its essence and develop them to create a personal vision in the spirit of the Impressionists. Aimed at landscape painters of all levels, advice is also given on tools and materials, the transition from plein air to the studio, and techniques including wax resist and scraping for texture.

Paul Nash (1889–1946) began writing his ‘personal history’ in 1936–7, but ended the narrative with the outbreak of the First World War, in the chapter entitled ‘End of a World’. Described by David Boyd Haycock in his introduction as ‘one of the finest autobiographies by an English artist of any era’, Outline is accompanied here by Nash’s notes for its continuation, his letters to his wife from France, 1917, and the previously unpublished ‘Memoirs of Paul Nash, 1913–1946' by his wife, Margaret.

The art historian Katy Norris presents the first account of the short life and prolific career of the British artist Christopher Wood (1902–1930), illustrated with over 130 reproductions and photographs of his paintings, drawings and stage designs. Norris provides analysis of the works and discusses the influence of fellow artists in Cornwall and Cumbria, Wood’s engagement with the Parisian avant-garde, and the ‘gathering storm clouds’ of his final year in Brittany.

Constable, JMW Turner, Ford Madox Brown and Paul Nash are among the artists represented in this selection of landscape paintings from the Tate collections.

From the Royal Museums Greenwich collection, these works by the maritime artist John Everett (1876–1949) include images of dazzle-painted First World War ships.

Twelve paintings from Scotland’s National Galleries, including works by Van Gogh and Courbet as well as the Scottish artists Samuel Peploe and George Hunter.

These artists’ views of the city range from A Frost Fair on the Thames (1684) to CWR Nevinson’s dynamic view of Ludgate Hill in 1930.

Drawn from The Lowry’s collection in Manchester, this selection of paintings reflects the various phases of Lowry’s life and art, from 1920 to 1959.

Now in the gallery devoted to her work at Kew, these botanical paintings by Marianne North (1830–90) show flowering plants of the Caribbean and South America.

Drawn from the Glasgow Museums collection, these paintings by the ‘Glasgow Boys’ include works by John Lavery, James Guthrie and Arthur Melville.

Annie Soudain’s linoprints use successive inkings and printings to build up their rich colours in depictions of natural landscape and wildlife.

The three titles included in this set are: Terry Frost (Read more...) Francis Bacon (Read more...) British and Irish Art 1945–1951 (Read more...)

This Scots ballad, about a ship’s captain sent on a fateful voyage, was strikingly illustrated by Robert Burns (1869–1941). His version is reproduced here with a selection of his other work; essays cover the ballad’s origins and music, Burns’ biography and his use of heraldry. Off-mint.

The former poet laureate tells the story of three generations of an artistic family: George, a leading Australian painter; Constant, a composer-conductor; and Kit, who managed rock group The Who. With cultural insights into topics ranging from revivalist art and classical music to post-war ballet and pop, this depicts a family whose artistic urges were frequently undermined by internecine strife and self-destructive tendencies.

After a brief account of his life, from young trainspotter to railway artist, Wrenford Thatcher presents reproductions of 86 paintings – ‘my attempt to relive the years before that fateful day in 1968 which saw the end of working steam’ – with notes on the location and locomotive in each painting. From the Princess Arthur of Connaught departing Rugby at night, to the A4 60014 Silver Link at Hatfield, the book journeys through 70 years of Thatcher’s paintings.

Now housed in the Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden, these scrapbooks, described by Edward Bawden himself as a ‘mass of ancient rubbish’, are in fact a vast and intriguing collection of Christmas cards, letters, cuttings, photographs and drawings. With reproductions of pages from all five scrapbooks and notes on the ‘scraps’ and the people mentioned, this volume is the closest thing we have to an autobiography of one of the finest, but most reclusive British artist-designers of the 20th century.

Paul Nash (1889–1946) is now recognized as a major British artist, who drew on Modernism and Surrealism to create a distinctive vision of the English landscape. Illustrated with 100 colour images, this survey of his life and work assesses the impact his time as a war artist had on him, explores his work as a book illustrator, and considers what his poetry and other writing reveals about his personal mythology.

Following the progress of Russian painting in the 18th and 19th centuries and its relationship with other European schools, from the foundation of the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1757 to the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, this groundbreaking and richly illustrated study places Russian painters in their own art historical context, ending with Ilia Repin’s powerful Portrait of Modest Mussorgsky, shown at the Peredvizhnik exhibition in 1881.

From images of the first industrial war by Edward Wadsworth, Paul Nash and CRW Nevinson, to Sybil Andrews’s abstract illustrations of urban life, this catalogue examines the impact of Continental Futurism and Cubism on British modernist printmakers. The book focuses on 13 artists, with reproductions of over 100 prints, arranged thematically by subject matter and stylistic direction, and essays on linocut block printing and the Grosvenor School artists. The catalogue accompanied an exhibition held in Boston and New York.

Duchamp (1887–1968) is now seen as a critical figure in the development of modern art thanks to his provocative conceptual works of the 1910s and his association with important post-war collectors such as Peggy Guggenheim. This biography examines an unusual career that produced few artworks and involved years of studying and playing chess.

This first volume in The Hermitage Collections showcases the masterpieces collected by successive Russian rulers and the splendour in which they are displayed. Ranging from Ancient Greece and Rome to 18th-century European sculpture, the artworks offer an encyclopedic view of world culture as well as an insight into the personal tastes of the country’s elite. An introductory essay explaining the history of the building and collection precedes over 250 photographs of the museum and its treasures. Slightly off-mint.

Although an accomplished draftsman and painter, Coecke was famed amongst his contemporaries for his complex tapestry designs, which were acquired by rulers including Henry VIII and the Medici. Focusing on 20 tapestries and produced to accompany an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this well-illustrated volume explores the development of his style, and the scale, innovation and mastery of colour that epitomize his contribution to Renaissance art in Flanders.

Turner was a regular visitor to Petworth House in Sussex, the home of his friend, patron and enthusiastic art collector George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont. Published to accompany an exhibition at the house, celebrating the restoration of the ‘Carved Room' with Turner’s gouache drawings and landscape paintings reinstated, this catalogue includes themed essays on Turner's country house art in general, and Petworth in particular, by academics from the National Trust and Tate Museum.

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Reproductions of Vladimir Tretchikoff’s green-faced woman once hung in countless suburban homes. This illustrated biography reveals how, despite being born in poverty in Siberia, he made his name as an artist in Singapore. He fled the island when it was invaded by the Japanese and almost drowned when his boat was sunk, but then relaunched his career in South Africa, receiving both massive popular success and critical disdain.

After Michael Robinson’s succinct, illustrated essay tracing the progress of the Impressionist movement from Édouard Manet’s Music in the Tuileries Gardens (1862) to Monet’s Waterlilies (1903), this volume from the Masterpieces of Art series presents 88 full-page reproductions of some of the greatest Impressionist works. In three sections – paintings of modern life, landscape and domesticity – the selection includes Renoir’s The Theatre Box (1874), Degas’ L’Absinthe, and The Sea at L’Estaque (1878) by Cézanne.

Early success made Rembrandt rich and famous in the booming Amsterdam of the 1630s but his extravagance led to penury in later life. Considered the quintessential ‘old master’ painter today, his unconventional compositions and expressive intensity were groundbreaking in his own time. This succinct biography includes reproductions of key paintings as well as newly commissioned illustrations that place the artist in his historical and social context.

After a brief spell in Peru as an infant, Paul Gauguin’s life is characterized by his travel to different parts of France and its colonies. The Breton peasants and indigenous Tahitians he encountered became a major influence on his work. This succinct biography includes reproductions of key paintings as well as newly commissioned illustrations that place the artist in his historical and social context.

London has fascinated painters for centuries, and central to that appeal has been the Thames. The 158 paintings in this book follow the river from Whistler’s Chelsea in the west to Turner’s Greenwich in the east, accompanied by an introductory text for each area and extensive captions giving historical context. Along the way are Monet’s Houses of Parliament, Lowry’s Piccadilly Circus, and St Paul’s, depicted both in 18th-century splendour by Canaletto and amid the ruins of the Blitz by David Bomberg.

George Lance was the Victorian artist who almost single-handedly effected the revival of still life painting. He was much admired by contemporaries such as JMW Turner, yet today his name is all but forgotten. Intended to restore his reputation and bring his art to a contemporary audience, this biography, which is extensively illustrated with his paintings, explores his life and work, including the controversy that led to his exclusion from the Royal Academy.

Frank Holl is an overlooked Victorian talent who tragically worked himself to death at the age of 33. He was one of Van Gogh’s favourite English painters and an influence on the great artist. As a portrait painter he has been compared to Watts and Millais, but it was the darkness of Holl’s social realism, bleak depictions of poverty and of the underworld, that resonated with his contemporary admirers. This illustrated volume is the first retrospective and reappraisal of this significant British artist.

Although Goya (1746–1828) received no portrait commissions until he was 37, such works make up nearly a third of his painted oeuvre. Produced to accompany an exhibition of more than 60 portraits, this volume reveals the range of Goya’s technical and stylistic achievements. In particular, it shows how the artist built on the model of earlier court painters, including Velázquez, while giving new psychological depth to depictions of the royalty, philosophers and military men of his own revolutionary times.

In a scholarly, richly illustrated study of the mid-17th-century Neapolitan art world, Marshall charts the links between the artisans, painters and dealers of this bustling city and its wealthy patrons and consumers of art. Among the topics examined are the working lives of artists, the process of buying and selling cabinet pictures, the rise of the exhibition, and the careers of successful artists such as Luca Giordano, Jusepe de Ribera and Massimo Stanzione.

In words and photographs, Boris Friedewald traces the life of Salvador Dalí and the various incarnations of his moustache, from the art student dandy of the 1920s to the artist’s death in 1989; and he describes the afterlife of the moustache in popular culture and even haute couture.

Richard Harrison enrolled at Chelsea School of Art in the 1980s to study product design but soon turned to painting. His style was essentially abstract until he developed a more figurative approach through a fascination with the landscape and Biblical and mythical subjects favoured by the old masters. This retrospective of his work includes a biography and appreciation of his oeuvre and reproductions of over 200 of his paintings.

A unique style of court painting, combining Persian, Indian and European elements, developed under the Mughal emperors who ruled India from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Drawing on the collection of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, this book reproduces 80 examples, ranging from scenes of adventure and court ceremonial to botanical illustrations. The introduction and accompanying texts explain the development of the genre and the context of the paintings.

Published to accompany an exhibition at the National Museum of Wales, this catalogue traces the development of landscape painting in Britain from the classicism of the 18th century, through the Romantic Movement to the environmental concerns of today. There are more than 80 plates, including work by Gainsborough, Constable, Turner, Monet and Sisley, and two essays, exploring the response of artists to the Industrial Revolution and the role of the Welsh landscape in British art.

With the focus on a select group of twelve paintings, among them Le Bassin des Nymphéas (1904) and Wisteria Number 1 and 2 (1920), this catalogue of an exhibition at Cincinnati Art Museum examines aspects of Monet’s work, including the depiction of water and the sanctuary of Giverny during the First World War, and ends with an article on Monet and his garden written in 1891 by the French art critic Octave Mirbeau.

Painter, book illustrator and newspaper sketch artist, the versatile John Gilbert (1817–97) was a huge celebrity in his day. This assessment examines the life and career of a now-neglected Victorian artist. More than 150 illustrations reproduce his work in various media, while essays explore his relationship to Old Masters and contemporaries, scientific examination of his techniques, his transactions with his framers and colourist, and what his success reveals about the 19th-century art market.

Bequeathed to the Corporation of London, this private collection of some 80 works was hung in Mansion House until the building’s refurbishment prompted the exhibition tour that brought them to the wider public. This accompanying catalogue reproduces landscapes, still lifes and genre paintings by Brueghel the Elder, Hals, Ruisdael and Tenier the Younger, among others. The text charts the history of the collection, the origins and provenance of each painting, and introduces each artist.

Discussing and reproducing 103 works, from Stone Head (1933) to Easter and the Totem (1953), this catalogue, with essays and commentary, focuses on Jackson Pollock’s artistic development as a figurative artist, leaving aside the familiar ‘drip’ paintings. Originally accompanied an exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Basel. Bound in grey linen.

This celebration of Britain’s favourite animals and their offspring contains over 50 watercolours by zoologist Hannah Dale, portraying the young of Britain's best-loved birds and animals, both wild and domesticated. The selection ranges from fox cubs dozing in a tangled heap to a peacock chick displaying its tiny tail feathers. All are accompanied by descriptions of the creatures and their early days.

First brought to Britain from North America in 1687, the magnolia is considered to be one of our most beautiful ornamental trees. This volume presents over 150 large-scale and finely detailed paintings of the flowers by award-winning botanical artist Barbara Oozeerally. Each illustration is accompanied by authoritative information about their cultivation, and full botanical descriptions, covering all hardy species and around 100 hybrids.

From the Blitz to the Swinging Sixties, London was home to a major art scene. Several key players – Auerbach, Bacon, Freud – were figurative painters rebelling against the prevailing Abstract orthodoxy. Others – Bridget Riley, John Hoyland – found their own distinctive forms of abstraction. Gayford’s study profiles the artists and explores their influences and connections. Drawing on first-hand interviews and illustrated with 114 paintings and photographs, it recreates the Soho bohemia these painters inhabited, with its friendships, feuds and legendary drinking sessions.

Best known as a furniture designer and architect, Irish-born Eileen Gray was a pioneer of Art Deco in the Paris of the 1920s and a follower and associate of Le Corbusier, among other luminaries of the period. This collection of her private and essentially unknown artworks was assembled for an exhibition at London’s Osborne Samuel Gallery in 2015 and comprises drawings, paintings, collages and photographs made between the 1920s and the 1950s.

Twentieth-century war at sea posed problems for artists: gone were the traditional naval confrontations; in modern, long-range battle the enemy could be invisible, in the sky or under the surface. Drawing on the National Maritime Museum’s outstanding collection of modern British art, this volume looks at how artists rose to the challenge of depicting the Navy and Merchant Marine at war. With over 160 colour reproductions, it discusses works by artists including Norman Wilkinson, John Everett, Eric Ravilious and Charles Wheeler.