As intimate and meticulous as his revered portraits, Lucian Freud's magnificent paintings and drawings of plant life are gathered for the first time in book form. Lucian Freud's portraits are known for their spectacular detail and unflinching gaze. Although Freud brought the same qualities to his paintings and drawings of plants, flowers, and landscapes, these are largely unknown. This elegant book shows how working with plants emboldened Freud to experiment with style and composition. Reproduced in sumptuous plates that allow readers to indulge in exquisite detail, seventy-five works--including Two Plants, Bananas, Cyclamen, The Painter's Garden, and Interior at Paddington--reveal Freud's singular approach to plant life. Readers unfamiliar with this aspect of Freud's work will find many similarities to his portraits--earthy palettes, unconventional rawness, and assiduous attention to detail. From the delicate realism of the cyclamens' petals to the bold brushstrokes that immortalize his overgrown garden, readers will appreciate Freud's ability to portray plants in new and personal ways. Comparative illustrations from throughout art history accompany essays on the history of plants in art and an appreciation of Freud's oeuvre. This monograph is a tremendous contribution to Freud's legacy, one that will enrich his admirers' discernment while also introducing his thoroughly original depictions of plants to a new audience.

Stylish, aspirational homes and the dogs that live in them in a beautifully photographed celebration of style and canines. Just as every home is different, so is every dog. In this stunningly photographed book of architecturally superb houses—many of them architects’ own homes—we see how the presence of a dog brings warmth and life to the most dramatic spaces. From mid-century raw brick to a penthouse apartment, gracious Edwardian to Scandinavian modern, from beach house to country retreat, there is always room for a dog or two. They trot, nap, and sniff through every page, at times more rambunctious than their surroundings, and at others perfectly in tune with the setting. Peek inside the most breathtaking homes that feature French bulldogs, golden retrievers, Labradoodles, and more as your guides. Oblivious to designer furniture, heritage considerations, or serious design aesthetics, dogs can make themselves at home anywhere. In fact, the homes in this book are all the more appealing because of their resident dogs.

Presented here is a selection of previously unpublished images from Freud's sketchbooks, now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

In 1964 Lucian Freud set his students at the Norwich College of Art an assignment: to paint naked self-portraits and to make them "revealing, telling, believable ... really shameless." It was advice that the artist was often to follow himself. Visceral, unflinching and often nude, Freud's self-portraits chart his biography and give us an insight into the development of his style. These paintings provide the viewer with a constant reminder of the artist's overwhelming presence, whether he is confronting the viewer directly or only present as a shadow or in a reflection. Freud's exploration of the self-portrait is unexpected and wide-ranging. In this volume, essays by leading authorities, including those who knew him, explore Freud's life and work, and analyze the importance of self-portraiture in his practice.

Brings together, for the first time, Lucian Freud's oil on copper paintings, including his lost portrait of Francis Bacon and two works that have never been reproduced before In the early 1950s, Lucian Freud produced several works in oil paint on copper, a technique favored by 17th-century artists such as Rembrandt and Frans Hals, but unusual for a 20th-century painter. Originally thought to be only a handful, Freud in fact painted more than a dozen copper works--all small-scale, enamel smooth and astonishingly intense. Based on a decade of research, this book, for the first time, brings together all of Freud's "coppers," including two works that have never been reproduced before. Among these paintings is Freud's famous portrait of Francis Bacon, labeled by Nicholas Serota as "the most important portrait of the 20th century." The work was stolen in 1988--its whereabouts still unknown--but during research for the book a rare photograph was discovered that shows the work just minutes before the theft, and it is published here for the first time.

This lavishly illustrated book reveals the lives of the people who assembled the greatest botanical collection of the Early Modern period, with stories of adventure and discovery across every continent. Sir Hans Sloane's herbarium, housed at the Natural History Museum in London, is probably the most extensive herbarium collection of its kind. It exemplifies the rich history of exploration and discovery in the period preceding Cook's voyages, and it remains of considerable scientific and historical value today. Assembled between the 1680s and 1750s, it comprises an estimated 120,000 pressed plant specimens. More than 300 people contributed to its development across more than 70 countries.

Subject: In this intriguing book, Anne Robbins explores the little-known history of artists collecting paintings. Focusing on the collections of Lucian Freud, Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, Frederic, Lord Leighton, George Frederic Watts, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Sir Anthony Van Dyck, she assesses the ways painters benefitted from owning someone else's work, their motivations for collecting, and how the history of a painting's ownership influences our own view of both the artist and the work. Robbins investigates paintings as the sources of creative inspiration, and even their use in teaching theories of art. She also examines how painters acquired the paintings they desired, whether through auction, dealerships, gift or exchange, and how they cared for the works: storing them, displaying them, and, in some cases, flaunting them for self-promotion. Robbins ultimately argues that the acts of acquiring art and of art making evolve in tandem-there are rich, multilayered connections between works owned and works painted. -- publisher's statement