Bargain book treasure.

[Jason W.]

I'm fast becoming an illustration book junkie. One I recently picked up is a book on the British artist, Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788). This $60 book cost me $12 at a local bargain bookstore. It's loaded with 254 illustrations and 195 color plates. This is an indispensable reference source for people who paint/model this period. His subjects varied from the ordinary laborer to the men and women of noble classes, with landscape and animals mixed in.
I'll post more of my favorite art/reference books and bargain buys.

More...

 

[kansas kid]

Hi Jason:

Thanks for posting some images from that great bargain you got on the
very famous portrait artist, Gainsborough. I notice you did not post
his, probably most famous, portrait of The Blue Boy.

I'm a retired Macintosh artist and have many large format illustrated books
on some of the great masters, i.e the Impressionists, and even some of
the world famous American illustrators such as N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield
Parrish, Frederick Remmington, Charles Russell, Norman Rockwell. And I get
a lot of creative ideas from scanning thru those pages.

Thanks again, for sharing these images from your book. I see you live in
Bath. Hummmmm? I wonder if Bath got it's name from that most famous
town in England? And I wonder if there is a story there?

Jayhawk

 

[billyturnip]

Thanks for posting this Jason. I find studying these kind of paintings particularly useful for painting my flats. Can you post the isbn please?

Roger.

 

[gothicgeek]

on a similar note check out The National Portrait Gallery


Many many classic and informative pages of paintings and photographs

Mark

 

[captnenglish]

You're a lucky dog, I'm always on the look out for bargains on this type of book and 18th C portraiture is a fave subject. Thanks for the tip, now I'm going to have track this one down.

 

[combatartist]

If you are in the midwest (USA), 1/2 price books is a great place to find good reference books. I'm a professional illustrator and use 1/2 price books all the time...drives my wife nuts.