Explores the history and development of the Pre-Raphaelite movement in the mid 19th century; and works which figure amongst the most lasting and generally propular in British art.

Cv/VAR series 152 publishes an anthology of essays and reviews by the eminent art historian and writer, Edward Lucie-Smith. The articles cover a broad span, from the Italian Renaissance of Giotto and Antonello da Messina, Leonardo and Michelangelo, progressing to Rubens, Velazquez and Ingres, with essays on William Hogarth, John Constable and John Everett Millais for British Art. With the experience of his landmark publications on modern art, which remain in print; the author sweeps the reader on a fabulous journey of perception, disclosing the strands that bind the continuum of classic and...

Cv/VAR Series 177 publishes a study by the celebrated art historian and writer Edward Lucie-Smith of the leading American artist Chuck Close. Finding his early impetus in the photorealistic works by Richard Estes, as well as the surface shocks of Jackson Pollock's 'Tachiste' paintings,

Reviews 'Jammers' by the celebrated American artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), in an exhibition held at Gagosian Gallery, Britannia Street London, from 16th February to 28th March 2013. The series comes from a month in 1975 when the artist worked in an Ashram (textile factory) in Ahmedabad, India.

In this study 'Art, Poetry and WW1, by Edward Lucue-Smith of writing, poetry and painting In the Centenary Year of the outbreak of the First World War the author considers the historical impact on the general psyche of the calamitous events, reflected in the expression of poets and visual artists. The volume includes Eric Kennington, CRW Nevinson, John Singer Sargent, William Orpen, Stanley Spencer and Paul Nash; and writers Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg, Wilfred Owen, Edward Thomas and T.S. Eliot. In Europe the painters: Otto Dix, Max Beckman, Franz Marc, Gino Severini, Ernst Ludwig...

A study of the masters Rembrandt van Rijn and JMW Turner exhibited at Tate Britain and the National Gallery London. The point is that Rembrandt and Turner (plus, with perhaps more reason,Titian and Michelangelo, who both lived to be much older than Rembrandt ) are regularly cited as artists who developed 'late styles', which have since been regarded as proof of superior genius. The idea evolved in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. It was at that time that the term 'Alterstil' - 'old age style' was coined in German. There is an excellent discussion of this in the first chapter of...

In his fascinating study of the pervasive theme of 'The Dance of Death' 'Edward Lucie-Smith traces its lineage in art from mosaiics of Pompeii and early Medieval frescos. He cites the celebrated engraving by Albrecht Durer: The Knight, Death and the Devil' and an extensive series of woodcuts,'The Dance of Death' by Hans Holbein the Younger. He explores 'Les Grand Miseres de Guerre', by Jaques Callot, the nightmares of Henri Fuseli and bitter social studies of Goya. The story takes in harsh anti-war prints by Louis Raemaeker and iconic works by Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele.The monograph is...

In this book Edward Lucie-Smith considers the achievement of John Singer Sargent in response to a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. This exhibition features Sargent's more private works - images of friends, rather than portraits painted on commission. In many ways Sargent is an ambiguous figure. The child of wealthy expatriate American parents, he was brought up in Europe, at first made his career in France, then settled in Britain. Totally cosmopolitan, he kept his American nationality, painted many American sitters, but never lived for any extended period of time in...

Goya - the Witches and Old Women Album', now on view at the Courtauld Gallery in London, is fascinating for many reasons. It is a brilliant example of painstaking detective work. The long separated drawings of this album, which dates from 1819-23, have been brought together in their original sequence. Only one sheet, out of 23, now appears to be missing. It also represents a bridge between once traditional ideas about art and those we have now. Some of its roots are in the long-established tradition of personal caricature, and the related tradition of grotesque genre portraits of the poor and...

In this book, which compares and contrasts the work of these two exceptional artists, Edward Lucie-Smith examines the changed but still vital role of portraiture in the art of our time.It is particularly interesting that the upcoming exhibition of Giacometti's work at the National Portrait Gallery focuses on Giacometti's activity as a portraitist, in both painting and sculpture. It coincides with a major retrospective exhibition at Tate Britain of paintings by Frank Auerbach. Though Auerbach has tackled a range of other subjects, urban landscapes, interiors and nudes, he is perhaps best...