The Face of Britain A History of the Nation Through Its Portraits by Simon Schama
epub | 83.71 MB | English | Author :Simon Schama | 0190621877 | 2016 | Oxford University Press

Book Description :

Author of a number of celebrated works, including the bestselling The Story of the Je 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. 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. Schama calls the portrait, initially damned, the "most powerful image of a Great Briton ever executed." Annie Leibovitz's photograph of a nude John Lennon kissing...

Category : | Painting, Art History Schools, Periods & Styles eBooks, Art Portraits