Painters of Fantasy: From Hieronymous Bosch to Salvador Dali

by William Gaunt

With an introduction by William Gaunt (Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1974). Brief but informative notes accompany the reproductions (two-thirds in color) in this oversized (11 x 16 ) paperback volume. From Mantegna and da Vinci to Magritte and Dali: 104 strange and surrealistic paintings to ponder.

Copyright © 1979 Children's Literature Association
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112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

William Gaunt (1900–1980) was a British artist and art historian.

After serving briefly with the Durham Light Infantry in the First World War, Gaunt went on to Worcester College, Oxford, and graduated with honours. He completed an MA at the Ruskin School of Drawing and found work as a painter, art historian, art critic, novelist and travel book writer.

During the Second World War he was commissioned by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee to paint London city bomb sites.

Gaunt was drawn to the Pre-Raphaelites, whom he considered to be underappreciated, and wrote his most enduring book on the subject, The Pre-Raphaelite Tragedy (1942), followed by further studies of Victorian art, The Aesthetic Adventure (1945) and Victorian Olympus (1952).