Twenty-five art-related essays by distinguished British art critic and painter reveal his wide-ranging interests. Writings explore relationships between ancient and modern art and between art and life, examining such diverse topics as the art of the Bushmen, African sculpture, ancient American art, Giotto and the art of Florence, the paintings of Durer, El Greco and William Blake, the drawings of Aubrey Beardsley, the works of Paul Cezanne, and contemporary domestic architecture. Also includes Fry's most important theoretical statement, his -Essay in Aesthetics.- 13 black-and-white...

One of the greatest Victorian-era biographies, Alexander Gilchrist's The Life of William Blake plays a key role in the history of Blake's work and its influence on other writers and artists. The first standard text on Blake and a cornerstone of the extensive scholarship on his life and work, it not only delivered its subject from unjust obscurity but also dispelled the notion of Blake's insanity and established his genius as a visionary artist and poet.
Sensitive, highly readable accounts trace Blake's childhood and years as an engraver's apprentice, his relations with patrons and...