Picture History of Art: Western Art Through the Ages

by Christopher Lloyd, Jenny Haviland, Elwyn Blacker

Provides visual identification of each major art movement and style, featuring 70 double-page spreads focusing on the works and lives of outstanding artists and 162 single-page pictorial studies of masterpieces important in the history of art

323 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1979

About the author

Christopher Lloyd CVO is a British art historian and was Surveyor of The Queen's Pictures (1988–2005). Lloyd worked in the Department of Western Art at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford for twenty years. In 1972, he was appointed to a fellowship at Harvard University's Center for Renaissance Studies, Villa I Tatti, in Florence, Italy. During 1980–81, he was a visiting research curator at the Art Institute of Chicago, concentrating on the art of early Italy.

Reviews

[Suresh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having picked up this book many years ago, sitting in a bookshelf in the family home, I finally finished it today, glancing at the pictures of those that take my eye, and so defines to me more clearly of the art that resonates in my soul, and thereby giving a glimpse to meet of my own emotional journey from my history.
Those that resonates with me were portraits, facial expressions, or realistic panoramic scenes.
I could quickly overlook the brazen objectification of women so popular in the visual arts, this subverted exploration of sexuality by the guise of the often talented male artists as needing numerous female muses to express the artists skill and validate their existence. This, amidst the backdrop of the subsequent use of patriarchy and male privilege over women (and sometimes children).
I also found it interesting and ironic that so many Christian images exist side by side with so many nude and sexualised images. Ironic, because Christian churches can be so disparaging of the expressions of sexuality.
Nonetheless, it is great to have such an easily accessible visual display of art, for me to develop my sense of art in me.
My favourite picture was from 1837, by Edwin Henry Landseer, ' The old Shepherd's Chief Mourner', showing a dog resting their head on a coffin.

[Oznasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was first published in 1979. Interesting to see that it is still in print.

I worked my way through it slowly over a long period of time. I have had a life-long interest in art and yet it still introduced me to many artists that I have not heard of before. Nowadays, if we already know the name of an artist we can find so many more examples of their work on the internet but at the time the book was published this was not available.

It covers Western art from prehistoric art through to the art of the 20th century. I did enjoy it and will continue to use it for reference (along with the internet) but there are two issues that I have with it. There are six, seven or eight pictures on most pages which means many of the illustrations are quite small. Secondly, many of the pictures are in black and white. Hey! This is an art book. Colour is one of the important aspects of art. Much is lost when the pictures are in black and white or quite small.

Never-the-less, it is still a useful reference book; worth picking up if you find one at the right price.