Set high on a ridge in historic parkland less than five miles from Trafalgar Square, Kenwood is London's favourite 'country house'. Remodelled by Robert Adam in the eighteenth century, in 1928 it became the home of the Iveagh Bequest, a superb collection of old master paintings that includes Rembrandt's most celebrated self-portrait, the only Vermeer in England outside the National Gallery and the Royal Collection, Gainsborough's Countess Howe, and classic works by Reynolds, Romney, Lawrence and Turner. The collection was formed between 1887 and 1891 by Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, Chairman of the world's leading brewery, who gave it to the nation with the house and estate. This book is published to mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of the opening of the Iveagh Bequest and is the first new catalogue of the collection to be produced in fifty years. It discusses each work, revealing the personalities behind the faces in the portraits, the social circumstances of each commission, and the way that art met the ambitions of artists, patrons, sitters and collectors. There are also two introductory essays that provide context for the house and discuss the ways in which Lord Iveagh was a pioneer collector. Beautifully produced, this catalogue of paintings is the essential book on Kenwood.

A legendary painting by Rembrandt forms the centerpiece of this exploration of self-portraits by leading artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Published to commemorate an exhibition presented by Gagosian in partnership with English Heritage, this stunning volume centers on Rembrandt's masterpiece Self-Portrait with Two Circles (c. 1665), from the collection of Kenwood House in London. The painting is considered to be Rembrandt's greatest late self-portrait and is accompanied here by examples of the genre from leading artists of the past one hundred years. These include works by Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lucian Freud, and Pablo Picasso, as well as contemporary artists such as Georg Baselitz, Glenn Brown, Urs Fischer, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Giuseppe Penone, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, and Rudolf Stingel, among others. Also featured is a new work by Jenny Saville, created in response to Rembrandt's masterpiece. Full-color plates of the works, generous details, and installation views of the exhibition accompany an expansive essay by art historian David Freedberg that provides a close look at the self-portraits created by Rembrandt throughout his life and considers the role of the Dutch master as the precursor of all modern painting.

"Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, known as Antico (c. 1455-1528), exemplifies the Renaissance passion for the revival of antiquity. Antico was proficient in all manner of antique art, which he studied, restored, and re-created with unparalleled skill. His gilded and silvered statuettes, made for the Gonzaga rulers at the court of Mantua, pioneered the genre of bronzes made in multiples....Antico's bronze inventions in turn promoted the iconic status of statuary from antiquity, such as the Apollo Belvedere discovered in Rome in 1489....This...publication...is the only available English-language monograph on the sculptor....Featuring a series of essays, the book provides an overview of Antico's career and addresses topics ranging from the chronology of his works to his understanding of the antique, his relationship with Mantuan humanism and Mantegna, his portraiture, aspects of his technique, and his artistic significance."--Front inside flap of dust jacket.

Of Johannes Vermeer's 36 surviving paintings, 12 depict musical themes or a musical instrument. These include the magnificent 'Young Woman Standing at a Virginal', 'Young Woman Seated at a Virginal', 'The Music Lesson' and 'The Guitar Player'. All are featured in this book, which provides new insight into the cultural significance of these images.

As the Seven Years' War cut off Mengs's official source of income from the Elector of Saxony, he was probably grateful to be able to turn to the lucrative field of Grand Tour portraiture.

"Duncan Phyfe (1770-1854), known during his lifetime as the "United States Rage," to this day remains America's best-known cabinetmaker. Establishing his reputation as a purveyor of luxury by designing high-quality furniture for New York's moneyed elite, Phyfe would come to count among his clients some of the nation's wealthiest and most storied families. This richly illustrated volume covers the full chronological sweep of the craftsman's distinguished career, from his earliest furniture-- which bears the influence of his 18th-century British predecessors Thomas Sheraton and Thomas Hope--to his late simplified designs in the Grecian Plain. More than sixty works by Phyfe and his workshop are highlighted, including rarely seen pieces from private collections and several newly discovered documented works. Additionally, essays by leading scholars bring to light new information on Phyfe's life, his workshop production, and his roster of illustrious patrons. What unfolds is the story of Phyfe's remarkable transformation from a young immigrant craftsman to an accomplished master cabinetmaker and an American icon."--Publisher's website.

On May 8th, 1889, Vincent Van Gogh was admitted to a mental asylum near St.-Remy-de-Provence where he remained as a voluntary patient until May the following year. Throughout the year, Van Gogh enjoyed a continuous dialogue with his brother about his art, his mental condition, his hopes and ambitions, and from time to time his despair and sense of failure. The asylum year saw Vincent at his most raw and needy, but also at his most creative - turning out the equivalent of a masterpiece a day. This book offers an account, month by month, of that crucial penultimate chapter in Van Gogh s life. It is separated from the other chapters in the artist s life because although treated in all the numerous biographies it is none the less a self-contained episode, a play within a play, with a shape and dynamic of its own. Van Gogh s asylum year is unlike any other year in the long history of art."