A fellow Devonian, James Northcote (1746 1831) was an admirer and pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose two-volume biography he published in 1813 15. Reissued here is the 'revised and augmented' second edition of 1818. Northcote is self-deprecating as to his fitness for the task, but claims that a worthy biography of a great artist can be written only by another artist, and his close personal knowledge of his subject and the circle in which Reynolds moved gives him insights, as well as providing anecdotes, which would not be available to a more 'professional' author. Volume 1 covers the first...

A fellow Devonian, James Northcote (1746 1831) was an admirer and pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose two-volume biography he published in 1813 15. Reissued here is the 'revised and augmented' second edition of 1818. Northcote is self-deprecating as to his fitness for the task, but claims that a worthy biography of a great artist can be written only by another artist, and his close personal knowledge of his subject and the circle in which Reynolds moved gives him insights, as well as providing anecdotes, which would not be available to a more 'professional' author. Volume 2 covers the...

The Oxford bookseller and publisher John Henry Parker (1806 84), a supporter of the Tractarian movement and a friend of Cardinal Newman, was also a historian of architecture, and first published this glossary in 1836. Reissued here is the enlarged third edition of 1840. The work is ordered alphabetically, and illustrated with 700 woodcuts by various artists. As stated in the first edition's preface, the book 'lays no claim to originality, its sole object being utility'. By 1837, 'the rapid sale of the first edition of this work clearly shews that something of the kind was required'. The third...

The Oxford bookseller and publisher John Henry Parker (1806 84), a supporter of the Tractarian movement and a friend of Cardinal Newman, was also a historian of architecture, and first published this glossary in 1836. Reissued here is the enlarged third edition of 1840. The work is ordered alphabetically, and illustrated with 700 woodcuts by various artists. As stated in the first edition's preface, the book 'lays no claim to originality, its sole object being utility'. By 1837, 'the rapid sale of the first edition of this work clearly shews that something of the kind was required'. The third...

The Oxford bookseller and publisher John Henry Parker (1806 84), a supporter of the Tractarian movement and a friend of Cardinal Newman, was also a historian of architecture, whose two-volume Glossary of Terms Used in Grecian, Roman, Italian, and Gothic Architecture is also reissued in this series. In 1851, he published a volume on English domestic architecture from the Norman Conquest to 1300 by the antiquary Thomas Hudson Turner (1815 52), and on Turner's death he completed the second volume, on the fourteenth century, himself. Both volumes are highly illustrated with line drawings and...

The Oxford bookseller and publisher John Henry Parker (1806 84), a supporter of the Tractarian movement and a friend of Cardinal Newman, was also a historian of architecture, whose two-volume Glossary of Terms Used in Grecian, Roman, Italian, and Gothic Architecture is also reissued in this series. In 1851, he published a volume on English domestic architecture from the Norman Conquest to 1300 by the antiquary Thomas Hudson Turner (1815 52), and on Turner's death he completed the second volume, on the fourteenth century, himself. Both volumes are highly illustrated with line drawings and...

Later known as Lady Eastlake, the writer Elizabeth Rigby (1809 93) travelled widely in her early years, and subsequently moved in the highest literary and artistic circles. After an illness in 1827 she was taken abroad to recover, and her encounters with European art led to her writing career. In 1849, she married the painter Charles Eastlake, who became the director of the National Gallery and president of the Royal Academy. Continuing to write, especially for the Quarterly Magazine, on literature and art, she spent part of each year touring galleries and private collections across Europe....

Later known as Lady Eastlake, the writer Elizabeth Rigby (1809 93) travelled widely in her early years, and subsequently moved in the highest literary and artistic circles. After an illness in 1827 she was taken abroad to recover, and her encounters with European art led to her writing career. In 1849, she married the painter Charles Eastlake, who became the director of the National Gallery and president of the Royal Academy. Continuing to write, especially for the Quarterly Magazine, on literature and art, she spent part of each year touring galleries and private collections across Europe....

This illustrated three-volume catalogue of the works of painter and engraver William Hogarth (1697 1764) was the result of 'Hogarthomania', the enthusiasm for all his productions which arose soon after his death. The publisher and author John Nichols (1745 1826), assisted by the collector and literary critic George Steevens, published a life of Hogarth and a list of his works in 1781, and as disputes increasingly arose over the genuineness of some of the prints attributed to him, enlarged versions appeared in 1782 and 1785. This work, published between 1808 and 1817, is the last in the...

Before the painter Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786 1846) committed suicide, he had left instructions that an account of his life should be published, using his autobiography up to 1820 and his letters and journals for the rest. The writer and dramatist Tom Taylor (1817 80) took on the editing, and the three-volume work was published in 1853. (The slightly enlarged second edition, also of 1853, is reissued here.) Haydon was a history painter at a time when that genre was perceived as the greatest form of the art, and his friends included Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Charles Lamb, Hazlitt and...