Gainsborough: A Portrait
Autor James Hamiltonen Limba Engleză Paperback – 9 aug 2018
Intr-un moment de furie oarba, Thomas Gainsborough isi sfasia propriile panze, mistuit de o energie ce parea sa-i traverseze fiecare nerv. Descoperim aici impactul profund pe care acest artist l-a avut asupra secolului al XVIII-lea britanic, redefinind limitele portretisticii de societate si aducand o senzualitate moderna intr-o epoca a rigiditatii formale. Notam cu interes modul in care James Hamilton reconstituie viata unui om profund atasat de familie, dar dominat de un temperament volatil si un comportament libertin. De la inceputurile modeste din Suffolk pana la atelierele luxoase din Bath si Londra, unde fermeca clientii bogati pentru a-si vinde panzele, parcursul sau este reconstituit cinematic, pe baza unor surse originale proaspete. In contextul operei autorului, aceasta biografie continua explorarea intersectiei dintre arta si societate pe care James Hamilton a dezvoltat-o in A Strange Business sau in analiza detaliata din Arthur Rackham: A Life with Illustration. Daca in acele lucrari anterioare accentul cadea pe mecanismele pietei de arta sau pe ilustratia de carte, in Gainsborough atentia se muta pe psihologia vibranta si tehnicile avansate ale unui singur creator. In aceeasi familie cu The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough, volumul adauga o perspectiva biografica integrata, transformand scrisorile sale excentrice intr-o naratiune coerenta despre ascensiunea sa sociala. De asemenea, daca Gainsborough's Family Album izoleaza portretele intime ale rudelor sale, James Hamilton plaseaza aceste piese intr-un context mult mai larg, cel al Londrei influentate de Hogarth. Consideram ca aceasta lucrare in limba engleza, publicata de Orion Publishing Group sub egida W&N, reuseste sa lumineze un geniu excentric.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 1474601065
Pagini: 320
Dimensiuni: 145 x 199 x 27 mm
Greutate: 0.35 kg
Editura: Orion Publishing Group
Colecția W&N
Locul publicării:London, United Kingdom
De ce să citești această carte
Recomandam aceasta biografie pasionatilor de istoria artei si celor atrasi de culisele societatii georgiene. Cititorul castiga o intelegere profunda a tehnicilor revolutionare ale lui Gainsborough si a modului in care talentul brut a navigat rigorile epocii. Este o oportunitate excelenta de a descoperi dualitatea dintre un tata devotat si un artist boem, ale carui inovatii au anticipat modernitatea.
Recenzii
A shrewd and entertaining biography ... Hamilton's approach is influenced by his perception that Gainsborough owed much to Hogarth ... This valuable insight informs both Hamilton's exploration of Gainsborough's art and his thorough and imaginative interpretation of the life ... Hamilton's book brings one of the very greatest [artists] vividly to life
Colourful and thoughtful ... What Hamilton's vivid book makes clear is just how lucky some of his sitters were; what they got for their guineas was not simply a likeness of imperishable glamour, but the company of a man who was every bit as lively and engaging as his paintings
Although [Hamilton's] primary focus is the life rather than the work ... the vivid descriptions of Gainsborough's studio practice breathe an authentic whiff of turps and linseed oil into the story ... Highly readable and brilliantly reconstructed
Hamilton is a first-rate art historian ... He gives us deft explanations of mysterious artistic effects - Gainsborough's use of ground glass in the medium, and how he might have learnt about it, and what it does to the surface. But the question of money is Hamilton's core expertise: how much Gainsborough earned and how much of it went on necessary display, such as grand houses in Bath and Pall Mall. And fascinating it is, too ... Gainsborough is one of the most lovable of great artists, and his personality shines through. This is an enjoyable biography by a writer who understands him
[A] richly humane biography of the artist ... [An] astute yet generous book
[A] wonderful new biography ... Hamilton is fascinating on Gainsborough's experimental and innovative technique, how he moved from what he calls the 'dabbing' of the artist's early paintings, with their more doll-like figures and outlines, to the characteristic loose sweeps, the 'brushing' style of his later work
James Hamilton's wholly absorbing biography is very different from the usual kind of art historical study that often surrounds such a major figure as Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88). Hamilton is positively in love with his subject, and writes with verve and enthusiasm, yet grounds it on vast research with primary and secondary sources, all impeccably noted
Hamilton's Gainsborough is a 'Jack-the-Lad', a 'swigging, gigging, kissing, drinking, fighting' good-time city boy in London and Bath ... [Hamilton] is strong both on the Gainsborough who is stirred by harvest gleaners and woodland cottages, and the Gainsborough who frets about his framing fees and boasts about the musical instruments he has bought ... [The book] gallops along at highwayman's pace
Spendthrift, talking nineteen to the dozen, laddish, musical and often resentful of the sitters that he had to paint in order to earn a living ("confounded ugly creatures"), [Gainsborough] is brought to lively and likeable life in Gainsborough: A Portrait by James Hamilton. The painter was, Hamilton says, more serious about his art than he let on, but it is those trace elements of his personality that give his pictures their sparkle
This affectionate and intricately researched biography is a memorable account of Gainsborough as 'one of the most joyous eccentrics' of his time
Were Mr and Mrs Andrews complete pricks? In his delightfully racy portrait of one of our most renowned British portraitists, the art historian James Hamilton suggests that Thomas Gainsborough's wedding picture of a pair of snooty Suffolk landowners is adorned with more pictures of penises than the wall of a public loo. This is just one of many new lights cast on Gainsborough, a "swigging, gigging, kissing, drinking, fighting" Jack-the-lad who, with his gift of the gab and his canny eye on the main chance, cavorts through Georgian England
This account of the Georgian portrait painter's life is set against a backdrop of dirt and highwaymen and skeletons on gibbets on Hounslow Heath. An 18th-century Scottish sex therapist even makes an appearance. But for all the fun the author has with the painter's penchant for drink and sex, the writing really takes off when Hamilton engages with Gainsborough's paintings themselves in all their swimmy, silken sheen
Glitters from beginning to end
A fine and empathetic portrait [of] a man who was as lively as his brushwork
[Gainsborough's] tetchiness animates this enjoyable biography, which also shows how his techniques were ahead of their time
Descriere
'Compulsively readable - the pages seem to turn themselves' John Carey, Sunday Times
'Brings one of the very greatest [artists] vividly to life' Literary Review
Thomas Gainsborough lived as if electricity shot through his sinews and crackled at his finger ends. He was a gentle and empathetic family man, but had a shockingly loose, libidinous manner and a volatility that could lead him to slash his paintings.
James Hamilton reveals the artist in his many contexts: the talented Suffolk lad, transported to the heights of fashion; the rake-on-the-make in London, learning his craft in the shadow of Hogarth; the society-portrait painter in Bath and London who earned huge sums by charming the right people into his studio. With fresh insights into original sources, Gainsborough: A Portrait transforms our understanding of this fascinating man, and enlightens the century that bore him.