Free summaries

Art — page 14

707 public-domain art books, summarised. Page 14 of 15.

Text books of art education, v. 4 of 7. Book IV, Fourth Year

Hugo B. Froehlich

This instructional volume guides young students through the fundamental principles of art, teaching them to see, measure, and translate the natural world into structured design. It transforms the act of observation into a deliberate, creative process.

Art6 min read

Guide to the Bayeux tapestry

Francis Birrell

A precise, scholarly survey guides the reader through the famous embroidered chronicle of the Norman Conquest, detailing its shifting political perspectives, material details, and dramatic historical arc.

Art6 min read

Lincoln in Caricature

Rufus Rockwell Wilson

The most scrutinized leader of the nineteenth century emerges here not through hagiography, but through the sharp, often mocking lens of contemporary political cartooning. This collection charts the turbulent evolution of a presidency as seen by those who wielded the pen against it.

Art6 min read

The Bookbinder in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg: An Account of His Life & Times, & of His Craft

Thomas K. Ford

A single brass roll with an engraved flaw can trace fifty years of trade, linking royal governors, runaway apprentices, and the personal libraries of founding fathers.

Art6 min read

The Spirit of Japanese Art

Yoné Noguchi

Through an intimate appraisal of woodblock printers, classical painters, and modern painters, this volume explores how true Eastern creation prioritizes silent contemplation, spiritual resonance, and poetical atmosphere over mechanical realism or empty technique.

Art6 min read

Banbury Chap Books and Nursery Toy Book Literature: [of the XVIII. and Early XIX. Centuries]

Edwin Pearson

A centuries-old world of popular print culture comes alive through salvaged woodblocks, forgotten nursery rhymes, and street peddlers' cries, charting how cheap paper literature shaped the early reading minds of ordinary children and working people across England.

Art5 min read

Chardin

Paul G. (Paul George) Konody

Quiet observation of ordinary life turns humble kitchen tables and domestic routines into timeless, luminous art.

Art5 min read

Odd Bits of Travel with Brush and Camera

Charles M. (Charles Maus) Taylor

Armed with a camera and a sketch book, a curious traveler records the vibrant street life, quiet rivers, and legendary landscapes of late-nineteenth-century Europe.

Art7 min read

U.S. Copyright Renewals: Artwork 1960-1964: Catalog of Copyright Entries

Library of Congress. Copyright Office

A meticulous administrative registry of mid-century visual culture becomes, in aggregate, an accidental census of American imagination and commercial design.

Art6 min read

Veronese

François Crastre

A luminous city finds its ultimate champion in an artist who transforms light, canvas, and theatrical splendor into a boundless celebration of human vitality.

Art6 min read

Bakst

André Levinson

Before altering Western stage design with vivid, oriental color, Léon Bakst was an awkward Petrograd student who built toy theaters out of sheet-soldier scraps and fairy-tale prints.

Art6 min read

Scottish Loch Scenery

Thomas Allan Croal

Sheer granite walls, black peat-stained waters, and roaring cascades define the ancient, mist-draped topography of Scotland's interior.

Art6 min read

The art of decorating dry goods windows and interiors

L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

Before mass media captivated the public eye, store windows served as the primary stage for urban imagination and commercial desire.

Art6 min read

The manufacture of earth colours

Josef Bersch

Industrial chemistry demands both raw natural geology and exact human processing to yield enduring, stable color.

Art6 min read

Artistic embroidery

Ella Rodman Church

This guide elevates needlework from mere household pastime to a disciplined, expressive art form. It provides essential principles and technical instruction for the nineteenth-century embroiderer, emphasizing aesthetic restraint and personal creative vision.

Art6 min read

From Grieg to Brahms: Studies of Some Modern Composers and Their Art

Daniel Gregory Mason

Music is a profound human endeavor that bridges the gap between raw, often chaotic, emotion and the crystalline order of artistic form. This collection of essays provides a thoughtful, historically grounded guide to understanding the personal and technical development of six pivotal modern composers.

Art6 min read

An Artist in Egypt

Walter Tyndale

An artist’s vivid, observational record of Egypt at the turn of the twentieth century, blending travel sketches with historical anecdotes and intimate reflections on the changing landscape of Cairo and the desert.

Art5 min read

Old Irish Glass

Stannus, Graydon, Mrs.

This guide offers an intimate, expert look into the world of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Irish glass, serving as both a historical record and a practical manual for identifying authentic pieces amidst a market flooded with fakes.

Art6 min read

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 02, December, 1857: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics

Various

This collection serves as a vibrant cultural snapshot of 1857, blending rigorous art criticism, political urgency, and intimate storytelling to capture the intellectual spirit of a nation on the brink of profound change.

Art7 min read

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 555, Supplementary Number

Various

This volume serves as a curated cabinet of nineteenth-century curiosity, offering a panoramic view of early 1830s British life through a blend of history, science, and literature.

Art6 min read

The Operatic Problem

William Johnson Galloway

Music serves as a vital pillar of civic life, yet high-quality opera remains an expensive luxury inaccessible to the general public. This book proposes a systematic, state-subsidized solution to bring the art form to the masses.

Art6 min read

Through Bosnia and Herzegovina with a Paint Brush

Whitwell, Edward Robson, Mrs.

Hook Through the eyes of an artist, a journey unfolds across the rugged, mountainous frontier of the Balkan Peninsula during a period of profound political uncertainty.

Art6 min read

Dürer

Herbert Furst

Albrecht Dürer remains an enigmatic figure, a man of profound intellect and rigid faith whose meticulous craftsmanship captured the soul of a transformative era while resisting the easy grace of his contemporaries.

Art6 min read

Tintoretto

S. L. (Samuel Levy) Bensusan

This succinct biography serves as a gateway to the life and monumental output of the Venetian master, offering a measured look at a career defined by relentless, feverish industry.

Art6 min read

Memlinc

J. Cyril M. (James Cyril M.) Weale

Hans Memling stands as a quiet giant of the fifteenth-century Flemish school, a painter whose serene, meditative works transformed the religious iconography of his era through a profound, disciplined, and deeply humanizing lens.

Art5 min read

Palissy the Huguenot Potter: A True Tale

C. L. (Cecilia Lucy) Brightwell

This narrative chronicles the life of Bernard Palissy, a 16th-century French potter and naturalist whose relentless pursuit of artistic perfection and religious integrity sustained him through a lifetime of poverty, persecution, and civil war. It is a portrait of a man who found beauty in the earth and courage in…

Art6 min read

Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema

Helen Zimmern

A master of light and marble, this painter transformed the ancient world into a vivid, domestic stage of sun-drenched leisure and quiet human drama.

Art6 min read

The Cries of London: Exhibiting Several of the Itinerant Traders of Antient and Modern Times

John Thomas Smith

A meticulous catalog of London’s disappearing street life, this collection preserves the sights and sounds of the city's itinerant traders through original etchings and observational prose. It captures a vanishing social landscape with the keen eye of a dedicated chronicler.

Art6 min read

Thomas Berthelet, Royal Printer and Bookbinder to Henry VIII., King of England

Cyril Davenport

The royal printer Thomas Berthelet introduced the delicate art of gold-tooling to English bookbinding, crafting enduring masterpieces that mirrored the shifting tastes of the Tudor court. This study serves as a meticulously detailed record of his career, documenting the rise of a craftsman who transformed the…

Art6 min read

The Mentor: Photography, Vol. 6, Num. 12, Serial No. 160, August 1, 1918

Paul Anderson

This survey of photography captures the dual nature of the medium in 1918, balancing its emergence as a rigorous scientific tool against its burgeoning potential as a profound form of artistic expression.

Art6 min read

John Leech's Pictures of Life and Character, Vol. 3 (of 3): From the Collection of "Mr. Punch"

John Leech

These vignettes capture the absurdity of nineteenth-century life, where high society and commoners alike stumble through the changing landscape of Victorian England. A mirror held to a nation in transition, the collection remains a masterclass in observational wit.

Art6 min read

Raemaekers' Cartoon History of the War, Volume 1: The First Twelve Months of War

Unknown

This collection serves as a powerful visual indictment of German military aggression during the first year of the Great War. It captures the transformation of a quiet, neutral Dutch painter into a defiant, global voice against autocratic violence.

Art6 min read

Textile Fabrics

Daniel Rock

This guide, originally written as an introduction to the South Kensington Museum’s expansive collection, offers a scholarly yet accessible entry into the history and artistry of woven and embroidered materials. It bridges the gap between the mundane cloth of antiquity and the ornate liturgical vestments of the…

Art6 min read

The Doré Bible Gallery, Volume 7

Unknown

This collection presents the foundational narratives of the New Testament, unified by their focus on the ministry, teachings, and miraculous interventions of Jesus. It serves as a visual and textual anchor for Western cultural literacy.

Art6 min read

The Eighteenth Century in English Caricature

Selwyn Brinton

The eighteenth century in England found its most honest reflection not in the formal portraiture of the aristocracy, but in the biting, ink-stained mirrors of its caricaturists. These artists captured the era’s true face.

Art6 min read

Elementary Instruction in the Art of Illuminating and Missal Painting on Vellum: A Guide to Modern Illuminators

D. (David) Laurent de Lara

This guide revives the Victorian passion for medieval artistry, transforming the meticulous craft of manuscript illumination into an accessible, nineteenth-century pursuit for the modern amateur.

Art6 min read

Murillo

S. L. (Samuel Levy) Bensusan

A painter who rose from the poverty of the Seville streets to become a pillar of Spanish religious art, capturing the humanity of both saints and beggars in a changing world.

Art6 min read

Violin tone and violin makers

Hidalgo Moya

This guide strips away the romantic myths surrounding stringed instruments, arguing that the true value of a violin lies not in its age or pedigree, but solely in the quality of its tone.

Art6 min read

Holbein

S. L. (Samuel Levy) Bensusan

This portrait of a master artist chronicles the life and enduring influence of a sixteenth-century genius whose precise, observant brush captured the faces of the Tudor age.

Art6 min read

The book of topiary

Charles H. Curtis

The art of topiary is a testament to the human desire to impose order and imagination upon the natural world, transforming living foliage into enduring, sculptural forms.

Art6 min read

The Illustrated Works of Gordon Home: A Linked Index to the Project Gutenberg Editions

Gordon Home

This comprehensive index serves as a foundational roadmap to the illustrated travel and historical writings of a dedicated chronicler of the English landscape and the neighboring Norman coast. It provides a structured entry point into a body of work that captures the architectural, geological, and cultural heritage…

Art6 min read

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 341, November 15, 1828

Various

This curated miscellany captures the restless intellectual curiosity of 1828, blending antiquarian discovery with the era’s burgeoning fascination for fine art, social philosophy, and the rapid pace of change.

Art6 min read

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 579, December 8, 1832

Various

This collection offers a vibrant, eclectic window into the nineteenth-century world, blending historical reflection, travel discovery, and high-seas adventure into a singular, kaleidoscopic portrait of a vanished era.

Art7 min read

Cutting and draping

John W. (John Wesley) Stephenson

A clear tape measure and a bolt of heavy fabric are all it takes to transform a bare room into an imposing interior, provided one knows how to calculate a scallop and cut a clean edge.

Art6 min read

Descriptive Zoopraxography

Eadweard Muybridge

A pioneering photograhic trial captures the true, hidden mechanics of movement, shattering centuries of artistic tradition by revealing how bodies actually propel themselves through space.

Art6 min read

John Leech, His Life and Work. Vol. 1 [of 2]

William Powell Frith

An intimate portrait of a master draughtsman emerges through shared memories, private correspondence, and the vibrant ink-strokes that captured nineteenth-century English life.

Art6 min read

Kachina Dolls

W. Ben (Walter Ben) Hunt

Whittling carved wooden figures offers a direct, accessible doorway into Indian craft traditions and traditional Southwest iconography.

Art6 min read

On books and arts

Wedmore, Frederick, Sir

Critical essays on literature, drama, and visual art reveal how quiet craft and authentic expression outlast mere showmanship.

Art6 min read