Auteur: William Guant
Taal: engels
Though English painting has always been susceptible to influence coming from abroad, it has retained an individual character of its own down to the present day. The comparative isolation of British art’has given a special significance to the work of those artists whose genius transcends its boundaries. yet the, general character of English painting can be defined for us by the work of a number of great individuals: Hogarth’s illustration of social life; Gainsborough's intimacy of feeling; the devotion to landscape of Constable and Turner; the intellectual fervour and compressed classicism of Stubbs; the poetic vision of Blake and Palmer. The aim of this book is to give as complete a view of _English painting .as possible: It ranges from England’s position in the Middle Ages, and the English character- istics which may be discerned in pictorial art prior to the Tudor period, tothe influence of Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism and abstract'art, seen as a prelude to a flourishing modern period. The illustrations have been chosen to showcharacteristic works of the artists but, at the same time, to avoid further reproduction of very familiar paintings in preference for lesser known works.