 High Society: The Portraits of Franz Xaver Winterhalter by Helga Kessler Aurisch, Tilmann von Stockhausen, Laure Chabanne, Mirja Straub – Hardcover: 256 pages; Arnoldsche Verlagsanstalt (Jan 12, 2016) Elegant aristocratic sitters, luxurious fashion and European monarchs - Franz Xaver Winterhalter did it all. Incorporates a costume component to explore the interplay between the haute couture creations of Charles Fredrick Worth and the exquisite female portraits by Winterhalter. Accompanying exhibitions in Freiburg (Germany) Nov. 2015 - March 2016; Houston (US), April 2016; Compiègne (France), Sept. 2016
 Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power & Brilliance by Cassandra Albinson, Peter Funnell, Lucy Pelz – Hardcover: 280 pages; Yale Center for British Art; 1st edition (Jan 11, 2011) Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830) was the pre-eminent portraitist of the Regency period, depicting monarchs, political leaders, aristocratic families, society beauties, and actresses with bravura flair. This important book explores Lawrence’s political friendships and allegiances along with his exceptional role as witness to significant historical events, and contrasts these with his remarkable ability to depict the charm and innocence of childhood. Elected President of the Royal Academy in 1820, Lawrence was instrumental in establishing the status of the artist in 19th-century Britain.
 Raphael by Pierluigi De Vecchi – Hardcover: 386 pages; Abbeville Press; 1st edition (Dec 1, 2002) All of Raphael's most important paintings as well as a significant number of his drawings and engravings are reproduced, principally in color, in this splendid new tribute to one of the most admired artists of the Italian Renaissance.
 Lorenzo Lotto: Rediscovered Master of the Renaissance by David Alan Brown, Peter Humfrey, Mauro Lucco – Hardcover: 272 pages; Yale University Press (Dec 1997) Hailed as the greatest Venetian painter after Titian, Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1556) is known for a delightfully idiosyncratic artistic vision that has special appeal for 20th-century sensibilities. The authors draw on a large number of original documents, including Lotto's will, letters, and meticulously kept account books. The volume also describes and reproduces many of Lotto's paintings such as SAINT JEROME IN THE WILDERNESS. 80 color and 100 b&w illustrations.
 Botticelli: Images of Love and Spring (Pegasus Library) by Frank Zollner, Franz Zollner – Hardcover: 128 pages; International Book Import Service, (Sep 1998) These two volumes follow 25 others in the "Pegasus Library" series, advertised as presenting "the passions that drive the masters." Waldmann, a Spanish art specialist, delves into the suspicion some people have entertained over the centuries that Francisco de Goya and one of his patrons, the 13th Duchess of Alba, had an adulterous relationship.
Some intriguing paintings, drawings, and prints produced in the 1790s suggest that perhaps they did, but the salacious quotes from a romantic novel and a final image of the duchess's exhumed and decayed corpse are more suited to a tabloid. In contrast, Zollner (art history, Univ. of Leipzig) uses Sandro Botticelli's art to explore virtuous love within marriage. He discusses the intended usage of the paintings in Italian bridal chambers and cites classical and Renaissance literary references for his analysis of iconographic motifs in "La Primavera," Birth of Venus and several other paintings.
Translated from German, the text of both books flows clearly; they are sturdily constructed, and the color illustrations complement the text well. Certain aspects, however, such as the slender physical format and dust jackets with erotic spine and cover designs, suggest that these books are intended for gift-giving or collecting rather than purchase by libraries. The exception would be libraries that acquire every title on a particular artist. — Anne Marie Lane, American Heritage Ctr., Laramie, WY Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 Botticelli: Life and Work by Ronald Lightbown – Hardcover: 336 pages; Abbeville Press (Nov 1989) Every aspect of Botticelli's work—his devotional and secular art, portraits, illustrations, and depictions of classical myth—are examined with a text that is a perfect complement to the magnificent art. 350 illustrations, 250 in full color.
 Giotto by Francesca Flores D'Arcais – Hardcover: 384 pages; Abbeville Press (Oct 1995) Giotto (1266-1337) is considered one of the founders of modern painting, having broken away from the rigid, stereotyped figures of Byzantine and medieval art to give his characters natural expression and solid three-dimensionality. D'Arcais leads readers on a chronological survey of Giotto's life and works. Features hundreds of colorful reproductions of his paintings.
 Piero Della Francesca by Maurizio Calvesi, Andrew Ellis (Translator) – Hardcover: 248 pages; Rizzoli (Nov 1998)
 Holbein (Colour Library) by Helen Langdon – Paperback: Phaidon/Chronicle Books, 1993
 Georges De LA Tour by Jacques Thuillier – Hardcover: 320 pages; Abbeville Press (Oct 1993) Georges de La Tour ranks with Vermeer and the Le Nain brothers among those seventeenth-century painters whose unmistakable talent is matched only by the aura of mystery that surrounds the artists themselves. Jacques Thuillier's groundbreaking monograph, first published in 1993, places La Tour's oeuvre in the specific context of the Lorraine region where he lived and worked, but also repositions La Tour alongside the greatest European masters. Available for the first time in paperback, this beautifully designed volume, complete with an illustrated catalogue raisonné and translations of key documentary sources, remains the essential reference work on this important and fascinating artist.
 Hans Holbein by Oskar Batschmann, Pascal Griener (Translator), Cecilia Hurley (Translator) – Hardcover: 256 pages; Princeton University Press (Sep 1997) To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Renaissance artist Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543), Court Painter to England's Henry VIII, this richly illustrated work provides a major advance in our understanding of Holbein's contribution to European art. 70 color illustrations. 190 b&w photos.
|  Jean-Etienne Liotard by Christopher Baker, Duncan Bull, Marc Fehlmann, William Hauptman, Neil Jeffares – Hardcover: 208 pages; Royal Academy Books (Oct 13, 2015) Renowned during the 18th century for his exquisite portraits and pastels, not to mention his outlandish Orientalist outfits, Jean-Etienne Liotard (1702–1789) painted some of the most significant rulers and aristocrats in Europe, including the entire British royal family.
A peripatetic artist, Liotard was born in Geneva and studied in Paris before traveling to Italy and then on to Constantinople. While there he painted local residents as well as British expatriates, and adopted the eccentric style of dress that, when he later visited London, saw him become known as “The Turk.”
This volume illuminates the career of this unique but now little-known artist, showcasing his extraordinary works, including portraits, drawings, and enamels.
 Thomas Lawrence Portraits Paperback: 80 pages; National Portrait Gallery (Oct 1, 2010) Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) was the leading portraitist of the Regency period. His skill and flair as an artist catapulted him from humble beginnings as a child prodigy sketching the likenesses of customers at his father's Bristol inn to being feted in the royal palaces of Europe. Upon Lawrence's arrival in London, Sir Joshua Reynolds declared that he would accomplish 'all that I have failed to achieve'.
 George Romney, 1734-1802 by Alex Kidson – Hardcover: 256 pages; Princeton University Press; 1st edition (Mar 11, 2002) Best Seller This handsome catalogue, which accompanies a major international exhibition commemorating the bicentennial of George Romney's death, offers the first in-depth modern overview of a key figure in eighteenth-century British art. Romney was the main rival of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough—and for much of his career more fashionable than either. A century ago, collectors fought to buy the portraits he created with a distinctive mix of elegance, mannerism, and informality; especially popular were those of Emma Hart (later the notorious Lady Hamilton), who became his favorite model and muse.
Romney's chief ambition, however, was to succeed as a history painter, and he made countless drawings for literary and mythological pictures that he never had time to paint. These drawings, executed with a spontaneity and dramatic expressiveness that have appealed to many modern artists, mark Romney as one of the first Romantics.
Reproducing over two hundred works, this is the most generously illustrated volume on Romney to date. In a major departure from earlier treatments, the book devotes equal attention to his drawings and his paintings, persuasively demonstrating how interdependent the two media were in his art. Alex Kidson has written an invitingly personal, intriguingly speculative text, in which Romney emerges as one of the most brilliant and inventive artists of his time. From now on, any serious consideration of his work must begin with this book.
 Sir Thomas Lawrence by Michael Levey – Hardcover: 256 pages; Yale University Press (Mar 8, 2006) Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) was the most gifted and successful British portrait painter in the generation following Gainsborough and Reynolds, and his pre-eminence was confirmed by his election as President of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1820. Yet Lawrence’s work has often been dismissed as flashy and meretricious. This beautifully illustrated, eloquently written, and comprehensive account reverses that view, demonstrating that Lawrence was an intelligent, hard-working, and profoundly conscientious artist. The book is the first sustained study of Lawrence’s work in many years, and the first ever to look closely at his highly accomplished drawings as well as his paintings. Tracing the steps in his career, Michael Levey analyses and illustrates the finest of Lawrence’s achievements, making pertinent comparisons with the work of British contemporaries and with foreign artists like Goya and Ingres. Utilizing published and unpublished sources and focusing detailed attention on individual works, Levey presents a persuasive argument for reconsideration of Lawrence as an artist of the top rank.
 Correggio by David Ekserdjian – Hardcover: 288 pages; Yale University Press (Feb 1998) This beautifully illustrated book is the first full-scale chronological and critical account of the paintings and drawings of Correggio (1489-1534)—a genius of the Italian Renaissance. The author places the artist in the context of 16th-century Italy and his isolation from fellow artists of the period, examines his particular creative process, and sheds new light on Correggio's patrons. 200 color and 50 b&w illustrations.
 Correggio (The Library of Great Masters) by Lucia Fornari Schianchi, Schianch, Correggio, Book Co Riverside, Lucia F. Schianchi, Christopher Evans – Paperback: 80 pages; Riverside Book Company (Nov 1994) Correggio is the twenty-second artist to be profiled in this reasonably priced yet high-quality paperback series devoted to artists of the Italian Renaissance. Each volume in the Library of Great Masters provides succinct historical and biographical information about the artist and his work, accompanied by approximately 100 colorplates including many full-page (81/4 inches by 11 inches) reproductions.
 Pietro Perugino: Master of the Italian Renaissance by Joseph Antenucci Becherer, Perugino, Katherine R. Smith Abbott – Hardcover: 328 pages; Rizzoli Bookstore (Nov 1997) An Umbrian painter, student of Piero della Francesco (with fellow student Leonardo), master of a great Florentine workshop, supervisor of the Sistine Chapel wall paintings of Botticelli, Ghirlandiao, Signorelli, and others (before Michelangelo), teacher of Raphael, and inspiration of the Pre-Raphaelites, Perugino?born Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci (1450-1523)? has had a one-man show in Grand Rapids, MI, after 500 years. This is also the first exhibit of his work outside Italy in 50 years. Nine Italian and American scholars have contributed brief, informative essays to this book. The core, however, is a catalog of the 35 works of art exhibited, including nine paintings shipped from the National Gallery of Umbria, Perugia, sister city of Grand Rapids, and 26 borrowed from museums in the United States.
This stunning, beautifully rendered monograph provides a modern reappraisal of Perugino's entire career; one has to reach all the way back to 1933 (R. Van Marle, The Development of the Italian School of Painting, Vol. 14) for as complete a treatment of Perugino in English. An annotated chronology reflects the latest scholarship. Essential for anyone with an interest in Renaissance art. — Ellen Bates, New York Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 Dosso Dossi: Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara by Peter Humfrey, Mauro Lucco, Andrea Bayer, Andrea Rothe, Jadranka Bentini From 1514 to 1542, Dosso Dossi was official painter to the court of Ferrara, one of the most enlightened centers of the Italian High Renaissance. His accomplished allegorical works and landscapes were very highly regarded—in 1568, Vasari, the leading critic of the time, described him as the greatest landscape painter in northern Italy. This book catalogs almost all of Dosso's surviving paintings, brought together in exhibitions by the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Getty Museum in L.A.
 Georges De La Tour and His World by Philip Conisbee – Hardcover: 320 pages; National Gallery Washington; 1st edition (Oct 30, 1996) Georges de La Tour, one of the most significant painters of 17th-century France, was virtually forgotten until the early 20th century. This work is an overview of the work and world of La Tour. It traces his development from the early, realistic daylight works to his nocturnal scenes.
 Georges De La Tour and His World by Philip Conisbee – Hardcover: 320 pages; National Gallery Washington; 1st edition (Oct 30, 1996) Georges de La Tour, now considered one of the greatest painters of 17th-century France, was virtually forgotten until the early 20th century. Since the major retrospective in Paris in 1972, new paintings have continued to emerge. This beautiful book is a complete overview of La Tour's work and will serve as the catalogue for a major exhibition opening at the National Gallery in October 1996. 40 b&w illustrations. 150 color plates.
 Pierre-Paul Prud'Hon by Sylvain Laveissiere, N. Metropolitan Museum of Art – Hardcover: 368 pages; Harry N. Abrams (Apr 1998) In an age of great painters like David, Gericault, and Delacroix, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon's (1758-1823) anomalous genius seems to stand slightly apart and below. A romantic Neoclassicist and a proto-Romantic classicist, the French master could boast a considerable achievement, amply expatiated and reverently documented in this handsome exhibition catalog by Laveissiere, who is compiling the catalogue raisonne on Prud'hon. While every aspect of the artist's creative range is given its due, his complex allegorical compositions and his extraordinarily accomplished and justly famous nude academies will continue to garner the greatest appreciation. Not slighted, however, is his genuine achievement as illustrator and painter of portraits and mythologies. Collections with an interest in this critical art historical moment will wish to acquire this now-fundamental volume. —Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Technology, New York Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 The Language of the Body: Drawings by Pierre-Paul Prud'Hon by Pierre-Paul Prud''''Hon, Robert Gordon, John Elderfield – Hardcover: 221 pages; Harry N. Abrams (Oct 1996) The Atlantic Monthly, Phoebe-Lou Adams Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (1758-1823) was a painter and decorator who enjoyed considerable success before withdrawing into collaboration with Constance Mayer. He did less and less painting of his own but spent a great deal of time on what was considered student practice—chalk studies of nudes. Prud'hon was a masterly draftsman, and the drawings (académies) reproduced in this generously illustrated book are impressive. They are also a bit strange. The female nudes are graceful nymphs doing nothing in particular. The male nudes, in contrast, are usually actively posed and frequently display girlishly pretty heads incongruously attached to heavily muscled adult bodies. Mr. Elderfield's text never truly accounts for this sexual disparity, but he makes a brave attempt at it, and the drawings can easily and happily be enjoyed for their own sake.
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Anecdote Lives of William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Henry Fuseli, Sir Thomas Lawrence and J.M.W. Turner
A Striking Likeness: The Life of George Romney
Holbein Portrait Drawings: 44 Plates
Maurice-Quentin de la Tour: the greatest pastel portraitist
Giorgione: The Painter of 'Poetic Brevity': Including Catalogue Raisonne 
