100 Details from Pictures in the National Gallery

by Kenneth M. Clark

100 Details offers Kenneth Clark's personal choice of details of paintings in the National Gallery, London, and his responses to them. Clark chooses the pictures he likes best, hoping that we will come to like them too. The result is like taking a stroll through a glorious art collection with a critic of astounding eye and intellect at our side.

First published in 1938, the book is arranged in a series of facing page spreads, now reproduced in full color, enabling us to discern analogies and contrasts between painting that are rarely seen together--a faun from Piero di Cosimo, a satyr from Rubens. The running commentaries are Kenneth Clark at his best. They range from a few lines to an entire history of still life between Giotto and Picasso, all conveyed in easy style.

Clark insists that there are countless ways of enjoying paintings, provided we stop, look, and think. He has picked the ones to stop at: the detail makes us look. And his comments, wide in scope and catholic in approach, suggest lines of thought so diverse that it is inconceivable that none will strike a chord with the reader.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

109 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1938

About the author

Sir Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (1903 -1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television, presenting a succession of programmes on the arts during the 1950s and 1960s, culminating in the Civilisation series in 1969.

The son of rich parents, Clark was introduced to the arts at an early age. Among his early influences were the writings of John Ruskin, which instilled in him the belief that everyone should have access to great art. After coming under the influence of the connoisseur and dealer Bernard Berenson, Clark was appointed director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford aged twenty-seven, and three years later he was put in charge of Britain's National Gallery. His twelve years there saw the gallery transformed to make it accessible and inviting to a wider public.

During the Second World War, when the collection was moved from London for safe keeping, Clark made the building available for a series of daily concerts which proved a celebrated morale booster during the Blitz.

After the war, and three years as Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford, Clark surprised many by accepting the chairmanship of the UK's first commercial television network. Once the service had been successfully launched he agreed to write and present programmes about the arts. These established him as a household name in Britain, and he was asked to create the first colour series about the arts, Civilisation, first broadcast in 1969 in Britain and in many other countries soon afterwards.

Among many honours, Clark was knighted at the unusually young age of thirty-five, and three decades later was made a life peer shortly before the first transmission of Civilisation. Three decades after his death, Clark was celebrated in an exhibition at Tate Britain in London, prompting a reappraisal of his career by a new generation of critics and historians. Opinions varied about his aesthetic judgment, particularly in attributing paintings to old masters, but his skill as a writer and his enthusiasm for popularising the arts were widely recognised. Both the BBC and the Tate described him in retrospect as one of the most influential figures in British art of the twentieth century.

Reviews

[Regine · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an eye Kenneth Clark had! His joy in oft-neglected details of paintings in the National Gallery is palpable. The book, published in 1938, was revised for color photography then for digital photography. Time has also brought changes in attribution and interpretation. But still this conversation continues to give pleasure. Greedily, I want more…

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a very good photographer, and seldom have much luck taking photos of paintings in their entirety when I visit museums. I tend to have more success photographing details of paintings instead. So I was quite interested to learn that art experts, among them the late Lord Kenneth Clark, have traditionally honed their talents by studying specific details.

Clark's "One Hundred Details from the National Gallery" was originally designed to be used as a sort of game, so that regular visitors to the National Gallery in London could test their knowledge of its paintings by looking at their details. But even if you've never been to the National Gallery, you can learn a great deal about art history, technique, and criticism through Clark's brief, but highly informative essays, as well as, of course, the book's luscious color photos.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like sitting in the lecture hall seeing slides on the screen side-by-side with Clark's commentary about the works, artistic themes and stylistic changes through the centuries, including one or two arcane references I was too lazy to look up, but well work keeping on hand to do so in the future. I felt a slight difference of opinion once or twice but treasure Clark's eye. A gorgeous book from an astonishing collection...all proceeds go toward the National Gallery, entertaining to read more than once, pictorial for the coffee table and intelligent to boot.

[Keeko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book and a clever idea. The book seems to be written for someone who would like to learn about art, and some of the terms would only be understood by someone who already knows a fair amount. Even so, I learned a lot, and the author made the artists come to life.

[Miri Gifford · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty great concept.