Lindsay Stainton Boeken

Landscape painting in watercolour is one of the best-loved branches of English art. This edition illustrates 100 of the finest examples by 70 artists. They range from the earliest topographic works of the 1750s to the inventive techniques and interpretative powers of Cozens, Girtin, Turner and Constable. A wide variety of landscapes includes picturesque ruins and old cottages, windswept moors and dramatic urban skylines in Britain, as well as distant places like North Carolina, Vancouver Island, Beijing and Tahiti. Among the earliest watercolours illustrated are those by foreign-born artists such as Hoefnagel, Hollar and Siberechts, who specialized in map-making and views of landed estates, and drawings made by John White in America in 1585. Each plate is discussed in detail, and in his introduction, the author explores the changing relationship of the artists with nature and art. His previous books are "Turner's Venice" and (co-authored) "Drawing in England from Hilliard to Hogarth".

In this exquisite gift book, Mary Yelloly's watercolors depict life in the English countryside, where the imaginary Grenville family, invented by Mary, spends its days playing games, taking walks, and enjoying carriage rides. Assisted by her "Nanna" and her sisters, Mary painted the elegant and fashionable Rosedale House, Gloucestershire, surrounded by parkland. The story is told through the child's eyes both in a series of interiors-drawing rooms, libraries, and opulent bedrooms-and a sequence of beautiful landscapes. The book offers a delightfully innocent view of life in 19th-century England, but it also tells the intriguing tale of school-age Mary Yelloly, whose brief life appears to have been as charmingly domestic as those she depicts on the pages. Gatefolds, marbleized paper, and beautifully reproduced illustrations make this book an irresistible gift and the exceptionally accomplished watercolors will be of special interest to art lovers.