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Art — page 14
886 public-domain art books, summarised. Page 14 of 19.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
![Cover of John Leech, His Life and Work. Vol. 1 [of 2]](https://cdn.myebooksbuy.com/c/john-leech-his-life-and-work-vol-1-of-2-william-powell-frith.webp)
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.
Kachina Dolls
W. Ben (Walter Ben) Hunt
Whittling carved wooden figures offers a direct, accessible doorway into Indian craft traditions and traditional Southwest iconography.
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.
The flowering plants of South Africa
I. B. (Illtyd Buller) Pole Evans
Desolate veld transforms into a brilliant expanse of white and fair blossoms under the intense sun of the African continent.
Hogarth
C. Lewis (Charles Lewis) Hind
An artist breaks with European convention to paint the unpolished life of eighteenth-century London, forcing his era to see its own vices, humor, and unexpected beauty.
Spanish Painting
A. de (Aureliano) Beruete y Moret
A nation’s visual history reveals itself not through grand, idealized inventions, but through an unwavering devotion to the unvarnished reality of human life.
Hans Holbein
Arthur B. (Arthur Bensley) Chamberlain
An illuminating study tracks the rise of a Northern Renaissance master whose exact observation and versatile craftsmanship captured the turbulent faces and religious transitions of sixteenth-century Europe.
The Dardanelles: Colour Sketches From Gallipoli
Norman Wilkinson
Naval artist Norman Wilkinson records the 1915 Gallipoli campaign from the water, capturing the smoke of Allied bombardments, the chaos of Suvla Bay, and the quiet resilience of sailors and soldiers in a doomed theater of war.
Greuze
Alys Eyre Macklin
A young painter captures eighteenth-century Paris with moral domestic drama, but his enduring legacy belongs to the luminous, voluptuous maidens who outlived his fleeting fame.
John Leech's Pictures of Life and Character, Volume 3 (of 3): From the Collection of "Mr. Punch"
John Leech
A mid-Victorian mirror captures the absurdities, vanity, and quiet charm of everyday British life, documenting a rapidly changing world through sharp visual satire and affectionate observation.
Sargent
T. Martin Wood
An perceptive, unflattering study of modern life emerges when an artist chooses to paint society without illusion or romantic deceit.
The development of British landscape painting in water-colours
A. J. (Alexander Joseph) Finberg
Across two centuries of changing tastes and techniques, British artists turned liquid pigment and light paper into an enduring, expressive vision of the natural world.
The Orchid Album, Volume 2: Comprising Coloured Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, and Beautiful Orchidaceous Plants
Thomas Moore
Intricate magenta-tipped petals, pendulous emerald blooms, and dark brown ruffs unfold in an elegant study of nature's rarest botanical treasures.
The Pavement Masters of Siena (1369-1562)
Robert H. Hobart (Robert Henry Hobart) Cust
The Cathedral of Siena holds a floor like no other, a vast tapestry of stone where the history of faith and philosophy is walked upon by the faithful. Through centuries of craft, this singular pavement records the evolving vision of the masters who laid it.
International Weekly Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science
Various
A kaleidoscopic Victorian miscellany captures a mid-nineteenth-century world in rapid transition, juxtaposing European literary gossip with gold-rush grit, spiritual histories, and trenchant satire.
Hellenistic sculpture
Guy Dickins
This posthumous study maps the shifting centers of creative power in the Greek world, tracing how sculpture evolved from the classical traditions of the mainland to the expansive, often dramatic styles of the Hellenistic kingdoms. It serves as a scholarly guide to a transformative period of artistic innovation and…
Fra Angelico
James Mason
Fra Angelico, born Guido da Vicchio, remains one of the most enigmatic figures of the early Renaissance. Neither purely a cloistered monk nor merely a professional painter, he occupied a unique space where deep religious devotion and artistic innovation converged.
John Leech's Pictures of Life and Character, Volume 1 (of 3): From the Collection of "Mr. Punch"
John Leech
These illustrations capture the Victorian era in sharp, witty snapshots, revealing the social anxieties and absurdities of a rapidly modernizing society through the eyes of a master observer.
Mantegna and Francia
Julia Cartwright
The Renaissance comes to life through the distinct paths of two masters: one, a rigorous seeker of classical perfection, and the other, a gentle soul whose art remains rooted in Christian devotion.
British Marine Painting
Unknown
The sea is a vast, untameable subject that demands both the heart of a poet and the rigorous, analytical eye of a scientist. Capturing its essence requires an artist to master the complex intersection of light, atmosphere, and form.
The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, December 1882: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
The pursuit of self-improvement was once a structured, communal endeavor, best captured in this chronicle of a bygone era’s intellectual ambition. It offers a window into the nineteenth-century ideal of the lifelong learner.
The Mentor: The National Gallery—London, Vol. 4, Num. 4, Serial No. 104, April 1, 1916: Great Galleries of the World
John C. Van Dyke
A guide to the National Gallery in London, this volume explores the institution’s rich collection through brief, thematic biographies of the master painters whose works define the history of European art.
Arts and crafts of old Japan
Stewart Dick
This guide serves as a gentle invitation to explore the refined traditions of Japanese aesthetic expression, stripping away the clutter of Western misapprehension to reveal a legacy of profound craftsmanship.