The Face of Britain: A History of the Nation Through Its Portraits
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.28 (636 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0190621877 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 632 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-05-12 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
A great idea for a book fully realized Superb in every way. Even if you have not visited the National Portrait Gallery, this trip through it is as revelatory of history as it is of art. Th writing is an unadulterated joy in its elegance and its occasional straight from the hip colloquialisms. This is much more than a coffe. David C. Bright said Well worth it!. Schama's writing style is idiosyncratic, and neatly reflects the people of the portraits and their loves, tragedies, and complexities, with a distinctive quirkiness that can be droll, jazzy, sly, or sympathetic. He's never dry, always vivid, and not condescending.As an American, one n. "Great book" according to Amazon Customer. Schama's books are rarely less than stimulating and always instructive. He uses portraiture, whether painted or photographed, as a basis for delving into British history. While some of the chapters are more interesting than others, as a whole, the book was worth every minute I spent r
Simon Schama is Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University and the author of many books, including Rough Crossings, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction, and The Embarrassment of Riches. He is a Contributing Editor to the Financial Times for which he writes on politics
One of our most in-demand public intellectuals has deftly ventriloquised his talking heads." -iEvening Standardr"Viewers of his TV shows know what a passionate presenter of his subject - art history - Simon Schama is. He button-holes your eye on his inward voyage of imagination. S. He does it as compulsively on the page as on screen I welcome back in this book history as people - people whose characters can be read in their fascinating faces." -iDaily Mailr"Schama's greatest gift is a sure eye for an extraordinary storyThis isn't what you get from conventional historians or conventional art writers, more's the pity. He is a great storyteller and we learn something new on every page." -A. "unfailingly amusing and intermittently risque, delivered with smooth, slightly ironic panache." -Foreign Affairs"This splendid book by historian and art critic Simon Schama could hardly be better tim
Author of a number of celebrated works, including the bestselling The Story of the Jews and Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, Simon Schama's latest book fuses history and art to create a tour de force of narrative sweep and illuminating insight. Linking them is Schama's vibrant exploration of how their connective power emerges from the dynamic between subject and artist, work and viewer, time and place. Using images from works-paintings, photographs, lithographs, etchings, sketches-found in London's National Portrait Gallery, The Face of Britain weaves together an account of their composition, framed by their particular moment of creation, and in the process unveils a collective portrait of nation and its history."Portraits," Schama writes, "have always been made with an eye to posterity." Commissioned to paint Winston Churchill in 1954, Graham Sutherland struggled with how to capture the "savior" of Great Britain honestly and humanely. Lavishly illustrated and written with the storytelling brio that is Schama's trademark, The Face of Britain invite