Books published by Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

The first extended study of Frank Auerbach's remarkable portrait drawings reveals their complexity and ambition as works of graphic art

A new account of painting in early modern England centered on the art and legacy of Anthony van Dyck

A bold reassessment of the major architectural monuments and urban forms of the world's first industrial city: Manchester

A lavishly illustrated biography of James Gillray, inventor of the art of political caricature

The first collective, critical historical study of women artists in Britain and France during the Revolutionary era

Conceptualizes "graft"- the violent and creative processes of suturing arts as a method of empire building in western eighteenth-century India

A bold reassessment of nineteenth-century British painter and decorative artist Edward Burne-Jones, elucidating his fundamentally radical defiance of the Victorian age

The Survey of London returns to the East End to chronicle Whitechapel, shedding new light on this widely misunderstood district

A highly original examination of a series of unique gardens made by English eccentrics from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries

A study of how artists and photographers shaped imperial visions of war and peace in the Victorian period

A reconstruction of the 'Strand palaces', where England's early-modern and post-Reformation elites jostled to build and furnish new, secular cathedrals.

The first comprehensive dictionary of everyone of importance in the creation of English architecture during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages

The life and art of the 18th-century naturalist Mark Catesby, and his pioneering work depicting the flora and fauna of North America, are explored in vibrant detail

An in-depth examination of William Blake's glorious and acclaimed series of twelve monoprints

A beautifully illustrated exploration of opulent tastes and the power of patronage in 18th-century Britain

The story of an innovative designer and farsighted art entrepreneur and the important role he played in the dissemination of 19th-century Aestheticism

A revelatory study of one of the 18th century‿s greatest artists, which places him in relation to the darker side of the English Enlightenment Joseph Wright of Derby (1734‿1797), though conventionally known as a ‿painter of light‿, returned repeatedly to nocturnal images. His essential preoccupations were dark and melancholy, and he had an enduring concern with death, ruin, old age, loss of innocence, isolation and tragedy. In this long-awaited book, Matthew Craske adopts a fresh approach to Wright, which takes seriously contemporary reports of his melancholia and nervous disposition, and goes on to question accepted understandings of the artist. Long seen as a quintessentially modern and progressive figure ‿ one of the artistic icons of the English Enlightenment ‿ Craske overturns this traditional view of the artist. He demonstrates the extent to which Wright, rather than being a spokesman for scientific progress, was actually a melancholic and sceptical outsider, who increasingly retreated into a solitary, rural world of philosophical and poetic reflection, and whose artistic vision was correspondingly dark and meditative. Craske offers a succession of new and powerful interpretations of the artist‿s paintings, including some of his most famous masterpieces. In doing so, he recovers Wright‿s deep engagement with the landscape, with the pleasures and sufferings of solitude, and with the themes of time, history and mortality. In this book, Joseph Wright of Derby emerges not only as one of Britain‿s most ambitious and innovative artists, but also as one of its most profound. Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

An exploration of Turner's final, vital years, including new readings of some of his most significant paintings

"In the 19th century, the Aesthetic movement exalted taste, the pursuit of beauty, and self-expression over moral expectations and restrictive conformity. This illuminating publication examines the production and circulation of artworks made during this unique historical moment. Looking at how specific works of art in this style were created, collected, and exchanged, the book pushes beyond the notion of Aesthetic painting and design as being merely decorative. Instead, work by James McNeill Whistler, Edward Burne-Jones, Albert Moore, and others is shown to have offered their makers and viewers a means of further engaging with the rapidly changing world around them. This multifaceted and thought-provoking study provides a radical new perspective on a mode of artistic production, linking it to the era's expanding visual culture and the technological advancements that contributed to it. In a period marked by increasing connectivity, this book shows how art of the Aesthetic movement on both sides of the Atlantic figured into growing global networks"--

An investigation of the outsized influence of the Mod subculture on key figures of the 1960s London art scene Bonding over matters of taste and style, the ‿Mods‿ of late 1950s London recognised in one another shared affinities for Italian-style suits, tidy haircuts, espresso bars, Vespa scooters and the latest American jazz. In this groundbreaking book, leading art historian Thomas Crow argues that the figure of the Mod exerted an influence beyond its assumed social boundaries by exemplifying the postwar metropolis in all of its excitement and complexity. Crow examines the works of key figures in the London art scene of the 1960s, including Robyn Denny, David Hockney, Pauline Boty, Bridget Riley and Bruce McLean, who shared and heightened aspects of this new and youthful urbanity. The triumphant arrival of the international counterculture forced both young Mods and established artists to reassess and regroup in novel, revealing formations. Understanding the London Mod brings with it a needed, up-to-date reckoning with the legacies of Situationism, Social Art History and Cultural Studies. Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

A groundbreaking and extensively researched account of the 1960s London art scene In the 1960s, London became a vibrant hub of artistic production. Postwar reconstruction, jet air travel, television arts programs, new color supplements, a generation of young artists, dealers, and curators, the influx of international film companies, the projection of “creative Britainâ€? as a national brand‿all nurtured and promoted the emergence of London as “a new capital of art.â€? Extensively illustrated and researched, this book offers an unprecedented, rich account of the social field that constituted the lively London scene of the 1960s. In clear, fluent prose, Tickner presents an innovative sequence of critical case studies, each of which explores a particular institution or event in the cultural life of London between 1962 and 1968. The result is a kaleidoscopic view of an exuberant decade in the history of British art. Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

A fresh look at the Eastern origins of Christopher Wren‿s architecture In this revelatory study of one of the great architects in British history, Vaughan Hart considers Christopher Wren‿s (1632‿1723) interest in Eastern antiquity and Ottoman architecture, an interest that would animate much of his theory and practice. As the early modern understanding of antiquity broadened to include new discoveries at Palmyra and Persepolis, Wren disputed common assumptions about the European origins of Classical and Gothic architecture, tracing these building traditions not to the Greeks or Germans but to the stonemasons of the biblical East. In a deft analysis, Hart contextualizes Wren‿s use of classical elements‿columns, domes, and cross plans‿within his enthusiasm for the East and the broader Anglican interest in the Eastern church. A careful study of diary records reappraises Wren‿s working relationship with Robert Hooke (1635‿1703), who shared in many of Wren‿s theoretical commitments. The result is a new, deepened understanding of Wren‿s work. Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

An exceptionally thoughtful and well-written biography of one of the most influential studio potters in Britain

A deft interweaving of architectural and social history For aristocrats and gentry in 18th-century Ireland, the townhouses and country estates they resided in were carefully constructed to accommodate their cultivated lifestyles. Based on new research from Irish national collections and correspondence culled from papers in private keeping, this publication provides a vivid and engaging look at the various ways in which families tailored their homes to their personal needs and preferences. Halls were designed in order to simultaneously support a variety of activities, including dining, music, and games, while closed porches allowed visitors to arrive fully protected from the country‿s harsh weather. These grand houses were arranged in accordance with their residents‿ daily procedures, demonstrating a distinction between public and private spaces, and even keeping in mind the roles and arrangements of the servants in their purposeful layouts. With careful consideration given to both the practicality of everyday routine and the occasional special event, this book illustrates how the lives and residential structures of these aristocrats were inextricably woven together.  Published in association with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art