Portraits: A History

This sumptuous, oversized art treasury--with nearly 300 full-page reproductions of major works from museums all over the world--presents the history of Western portraiture, from its earliest beginnings in ancient art to its flowering in the Renaissance and Baroque eras to its transformation in modern times. The masters of the portrait--including Van Eyck, Leonardo, Raphael, Hals, Holbein, and Rembrandt--are all well represented, as are more recent practitioners of the genre such as Picasso, Chuck Close, and Gerhard Richter. Numerous stunning, close-up details provide an intimate view of the subjects depicted and invaluable information about the artists' techniques. Art historian Andreas Beyer's well-researched and far-ranging text offers a fascinating overview of portraiture; it is augmented by extended captions that shed light on each of the individual works, a complete bibliography, and biographies of the artists. Thomas Gainsborough's The Blue Boy, Francois Boucher's Madame de Pompadour, John Singer Sargent's Madame X, Pablo Picasso's Gertrude Stein, and scores of other masterworks by famous and less-well-known artists make this deluxe volume a joy to behold--a splendid celebration of a key aspect of our artistic heritage.