Brushstrokes: up front and personal 5/5

Don't be put off by the words Great Masters in the title, it actually covers artists from the Old Masters (1300-1860) Impressionists (1860-1905) and Modern Masters (1905-1980). A hundred paintings, in color, from seventy-seven artists are considered and each work gets the same treatment, for instance, Roy Lichtenstein's 'Whaam!' gets two spreads. The first page has a small photo of the artist and about three hundred words regarding his painting technique, this text relates to seven small line drawings and captions revealing how he worked. The right-hand page has a picture of Whaam! and a preparatory black and white drawing, both of which have long captions. The next spread has four life-size details of the painting (each with a simple thumbnail of the work to show where the detail comes from) and again long captions explaining techniques and the materials used.

It is the life-size illustrations that, to me, make this book special. There are plenty of visual art history books, my favorites are the Phaidon series: The Art Book; The 20TH Century Art Book; The American Art Book, all bursting with whole-page works of art but it is only when you can see a lifesize close-up of the work (plus a detailed caption) that things somehow start to fall into place and a greater appreciation is acquired. There is something special in looking at part of Henri Rousseau's 'The Dream' or Frank Stella's 'Hyena Stomp' and knowing that you're seeing part of the painting the same size as these artists created it.

Apart from looking at art techniques (and art history) in a rather unusual way, another reason I love this book is because it is beautifully designed and printed. You can use it as a reference work or just browse through some stunning paintings and understand them and their creators more.

BTW It originally came out in 1985 and it seems there are various reprints so I think it's worth checking the page numbers to see that you buy the complete book. This edition has 541 pages plus another eighteen unnumbered pages at the back. There are three sections to the book (Old Masters, Impressionists and Modern Masters) and I believe each section has been published as a single book.

US
Techniques of the Great Masters of Art: rooney-kathy-anfam: 9780948872990: Amazon.com: Books

UK

Techniques of the Great Masters of Art: Amazon.co.uk: 9780948872990: Books