This work tells of seven crucial years in Constable's life when he flowered as a painter while at the same time wooing Maria Bicknell, the woman he would marry.

This new edition includes a revised introduction and five new chapters which cover Hockney's production since 2011, including preparations for the Bigger Picture exhibition held at the Royal Academy in 2012 and the making of Hockney's iPad drawings and plans for the show. A difficult period followed the exhibition's huge success, marked first by a stroke, which left Hockney unable to speak for a long period, followed by the vandalism of the artist's Totem tree-trunk, and the tragic suicide of his assistant shortly thereafter. Escaping the gloom, in spring 2013 Hockney moved back to L.A. A few...

An account of the tumultuous nine weeks in which the famous nineteenth century artists Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin shared a house in the small French town of Arles. It is an exploration of a fragile friendship, art, madness, genius behind a shocking act of self-mutilation that the world has sought to explain.

The making of pictures has a history going back perhaps 100,000 years to an African shell used as a paint palette. In this book, each chapter addresses an important question: What happens when we try to express reality in two dimensions? Why is the 'Mona Lisa' beautiful and why are shadows so rarely found in Chinese, Japanese and Persian painting?

A new biography of Michelangelo by Martin Gayford, the acclaimed author of Constable in Love and The Yellow House. There was an epic sweep to Michelangelo's life. At 31 he was considered the finest artist in Italy, perhaps the world; long before he died at almost 90 he was widely believed to be the greatest sculptor or painter who had ever lived (and, by his enemies, to be an arrogant, uncouth, swindling miser). For decade after decade, he worked near the dynamic centre of events: the vortex at which European history was changing from Renaissance to Counter Reformation. Few of his works -...

A History of Pictures for Children takes readers on a journey through art history, from early art drawn on cave walls to the images we make today on our computers and phone cameras. Based on the bestselling book for adults, this children's edition of A History of Pictures is told through conversations between the artist David Hockney and the author Martin Gayford, who talk about art with inspiring simplicity and clarity. Rose Blake's illustrations illuminate the narratives of both authors to bring the history of art alive for a young audience.

One of our leading art critics and writers, Martin Gayford, recounts his travels and meetings with the world's greatest artists.

Sunday Times Art Book of the Year 2018 'If you are interested in modern British art, the book is unputdownable. If you are not, read it.' - Grey Gowrie, Financial Times 'All the good stories, and more, are here ... this is a genuinely encyclopaedic work, unlike anything else I have come across on the topic, informed by a deep love and understanding of modern painting. Everybody interested in the subject should read it.' - Andrew Marr, Sunday Times A masterfully narrated account of painting in London from the Second World War to the 1970s, illustrated throughout with documentary...

'I won't read a more interesting book all year... utterly fascinating' A. N. Wilson, Sunday Times 'Enormously good-humoured and entertaining... Hockney asks big questions about the nature of picture-making and the relationship between painters and photography in a way that no other contemporary artists seems to.' Andrew Marr, New Statesman A new, compact edition of David Hockney and Martin Gayford's brilliantly original book, with a revised final chapter and three entirely new Hockney artworks Informed and energized by a lifetime of painting, drawing and making images with...