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Art — page 17
888 public-domain art books, summarised. Page 17 of 19.
Ernesto Garcia Cabral: A Mexican Cartoonist
G. R. G. (George Robert Graham) Conway
Caricature reveals the heart of a culture, translating political volatility and daily urban struggles into a universal visual language.
The Cornhill Magazine (vol. XLII, no. 247 new series, January 1917)
Various
Amid the devastating global slaughter of 1917, a British monthly periodical offers a kaleidoscopic reflection of a society suspended between Victorian romance, intimate domestic longings, and the brutal realities of the Western Front.
The Doré Bible Gallery, Volume 6
Unknown
A quiet stable in Bethlehem becomes the setting for a story of extraordinary claim and rising opposition, tracking a life from humble birth to public ministry.
Joseph Pennell's Pictures in the Land of Temples: Reproductions of a Series of Lithographs Made by Him in the Land of Temples, March-June 1913, Together with Impressions and Notes by the Artist
Joseph Pennell
Centuries of ruin cannot dim the structural majesty of the ancient world. Standing before weathered columns, an artist captures the timeless harmony where classical architecture meets the landscape.
Joseph Pennell's Pictures of War Work in America: Reproductions of a series of lithographs of munition works made by him with the permission and authority of the United States government, with notes and an introduction by the artist
Joseph Pennell
Massive machines dwarf human hands across American industrial yards, converting timber, steel, and fire into the terrifying machinery of modern global warfare.
Stories Pictures Tell. Book 7
Flora L. (Flora Leona) Carpenter
Art is a window into the human experience, inviting us to look past the canvas and discover the stories of the people who shaped our history. This guide offers a thoughtful path toward that deeper understanding.
The Mentor: Chinese Rugs, Vol. 4, Num. 2, Serial No. 102, March 1, 1916
John Kimberly Mumford
A quiet dignity radiates from these woven masterworks, where simple grounds of soft gold and luminous indigo command respect without ever shouting for attention.
Unfinished Portraits: Stories of Musicians and Artists
Jennette Lee
Living behind every famous masterpiece of art or music is a human life—full of small, unrecorded moments, quiet sacrifices, and hidden heartbreaks.
Dutch Etchers of the Seventeenth Century
Laurence Binyon
This study offers a thoughtful examination of the Dutch etching tradition, exploring how a generation of seventeenth-century artists captured the quiet, lived reality of their nation. It serves as an essential guide for those seeking to understand the modest yet profound mastery of the Dutch masters beyond the…
A Soldier's Sketches Under Fire
Harold Harvey
These firsthand observations from the Western Front capture the visceral reality of trench warfare through the eyes of an artist-soldier who traded his paintbrush for a rifle.
Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No.690: March 17, 1877
Various
This mid-Victorian periodical offers a wide-ranging survey of the intellectual and social currents of 1877, blending high-minded civic duty with the curiosities of the age. It captures a society navigating the transition from the romantic age of sail to the complex, mechanized reality of the industrial future.
Fragments from France
Bruce Bairnsfather
Through the lens of an artist embedded in the trenches of the Great War, this collection captures the absurdity of life on the front lines. It turns the horror of industrialized conflict into a resilient, distinctly British form of dark humor.
Reminiscences of Glass-making
Deming Jarves
HOOK This account bridges the gap between ancient alchemy and industrial mastery, revealing the hidden history behind the glass objects that define our modern lives.
The Mentor: The Wife in Art, Vol. 1, Num. 28, Serial No. 28
Gustav Kobbé
This collection explores the intimate, often tumultuous partnerships between celebrated painters and their wives, arguing that these unions were foundational to the artists' creative output. It serves as a brief, biographical survey of how romantic love—whether stable or destructive—shaped the history of art.
The Doré Bible Gallery, Volume 3
Unknown
These accounts capture the sweeping drama of ancient Israel, weaving together the lives of judges, prophets, and kings through moments of profound sacrifice, fierce battle, and the complex weight of divine promise.
Four Masters of Etching
Wedmore, Frederick, Sir
A perceptive critic closely examines four pioneering nineteenth-century printmakers, defining the exact boundaries where technical mastery, fleeting observation, and artistic temperament meet upon the copper plate.
International Weekly Miscellany of Literature, Art, and Science
Various
A mid-nineteenth-century literary cabinet offers readers an eclectic, high-minded journey through European history, contemporary reporting, dramatic serial fiction, and scientific curiosities.
On art and artists
Max Simon Nordau
A scathing critique of aestheticism demands that art serve humanity rather than existing for its own hollow sake.
Jacques Louis David and the French Revolution
Wilhelm Reinhold Valentiner
Art and political upheaval are often seen as enemies, but this examination argues that the most volatile eras of history provide the crucible for the world’s most profound aesthetic shifts. By tracing the life of Jacques Louis David, the narrative explores how a painter’s obsession with revolutionary fervor can…
Romney
Randall Davies
This study re-examines the life and legacy of an overlooked master of the eighteenth-century British portrait, offering a clear-eyed perspective on his artistic struggles and enduring public appeal.
The heathery
Andrews, Henry Cranke, active 1799-1828
The world of the Erica—the heath—reveals itself here as a meticulous, silent parade of natural architecture, where color, form, and minute structural variation define the character of every stem. This is a scientific catalogue of the botanical treasures imported from the Cape of Good Hope, capturing a vanished era…
The Angel of Thought and Other Poems: Impressions from Old Masters
Ethel Allen Murphy
The gaze of the Renaissance master finds its poetic echo in these verses, which translate the stillness of sacred art into the movement of the human soul.
Ye Sundial Booke
T. Geoffrey W. (Thomas Geoffrey Wall) Henslow
This collection offers a contemplative look at the history, mechanics, and poetic resonance of the sundial, blending technical instruction with a nostalgic appreciation for the passage of time.
The Glebe 1913/12 (Vol. 1, No. 3): The Azure Adder
Charles Demuth
In a stark white New York studio, a circle of aspiring bohemian artists obsess over the birth of an ultra-modern, short-lived literary magazine while tangling in fragile romances.
The Grip cartoons: vols. I & II, May 1873 to May 1874
J. W. (John Wilson) Bengough
Satirical cartoons and sharp commentary trace the high-stakes political scandals, elections, and parliamentary battles of early post-Confederation Canada.
Notes and Queries, Number 09, December 29, 1849
Various
A collaborative intellectual parlor, this collection preserves the ephemeral sparks of mid-19th-century scholarship. It gathers the disparate, fading inquiries of a Victorian public into a singular, enduring record of human curiosity.
An Apology for the Colouring of the Greek Court in the Crystal Palace
Owen Jones
The pristine, white marble of classical antiquity is a modern misconception. This work argues that Greek architecture and sculpture were vibrant, painted, and heavily ornamented, challenging the long-standing aesthetic prejudices of the nineteenth century.
The Mentor: Furniture and its Makers, Vol. 1, Num. 30, Serial No. 30
Charles R. (Charles Russell) Richards
This survey of domestic history explores how furniture evolved from the sparse, heavy utility of the Middle Ages into the refined, aesthetic craftsmanship of the eighteenth century.
Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank
This collection serves as a sprawling cartography of nineteenth-century British visual culture, indexing the prolific contributions of an illustrator who defined the era's literary imagination. It acts as a comprehensive record of a career spent shaping the visual identity of iconic stories, political satire, and…
Phil May: Sketches from "Punch."
Phil May
These vibrant vignettes capture the fleeting, witty, and often absurd moments of late-Victorian British life. They offer a window into a vanished social world, preserved through the sharp observation and fluid line of a master caricaturist.
How to Enamel: Being a Treatise on the Practical Enameling of Jewelry with Hard Enamels
Howard M. Chapin
This technical manual demystifies the exacting craft of jewelry enameling, transforming complex chemical processes into a practical, step-by-step guide for the ambitious artisan.
The Picture Gallery Explored
Unknown
A retired gentleman introduces his young cousins to history through the portraits in his home, teaching them to look past appearances toward the virtues and follies of the past.
The Art of Graining: How Acquired and How Produced.: With the description of colors and their applications
Charles Pickert
This guide serves as a practical manual for the 19th-century artisan, detailing the meticulous techniques required to transform ordinary surfaces into convincing imitations of fine hardwoods through the decorative craft of graining.
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.
Coloured engravings of heaths
Andrews, Henry Cranke, active 1799-1828
A meticulous botanical survey of the *Erica* genus, capturing the intricate, fragile beauty of heaths through precise anatomical observation and elegant classification.
Essay on art and photography
A. V. Sutton
This essay provides an earnest, mid-Victorian defense of photography as a vital partner to the fine arts, rather than a mechanical threat to the painter’s craft. It serves as a manifesto for the dignity of the new medium.
How to paint permanent pictures
Maximilian Toch
Centuries of artistic masterpieces fade and crack not from age, but from chemical neglect, a preventable tragedy this manual sets out to resolve through common-sense chemistry.
The Daguerreian Journal, Vol. II, No. 2, June 1, 1851
Various
Step into the mid-nineteenth century to witness the thrilling convergence of pioneering chemistry, early photography, and modern industrial ambition.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 557, July 14, 1832
Various
This anthology offers a window into the intellectual life of 1832, blending biographies, travelogues, and practical guides into a varied portrait of a rapidly changing British society.
Thirty Letters on Various Subjects, Vol. 2 (of 2)
William Jackson
Beneath the quiet surface of eighteenth-century correspondence lies a sharp, inquiring mind probing everything from the painter’s palette to the forgotten genius of an Elizabethan poet.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 573, October 27, 1832
Various
This collection offers a vibrant, eclectic window into the Victorian mind, blending historical curiosities, poignant verse, and worldly observations into a single, immersive snapshot of life in 1832.
The charm of Reynolds
James Mason
Tracing the industrious life and enduring artistic legacy of Britain's premier portraitist, this volume explores the triumphs and trials behind a monumental canvas collection.
The heathery
Andrews, Henry Cranke, active 1799-1828
A rigorous catalog of the Cape of Good Hope’s most diverse botanical inhabitants, this work serves as a precise guide to the cultivation and classification of the genus Erica. It bridges the gap between scientific observation and the practical requirements of the gardener.
Pictures in Colour of the Isle of Wight
Unknown
This collection serves as a serene, visual-focused guide to the Isle of Wight, capturing the landscape and local landmarks of a bygone era with appreciative, observant detail. It acts as an invitation to travel, pairing descriptive prose with the promise of natural and historical wonders.
In Bohemia with Du Maurier: The First of a Series of Reminiscences
Felix Moscheles
A shared workbench in a nineteenth-century studio could seed a lifetime of art, music, and lasting affection.
Normandy: The Scenery & Romance of Its Ancient Towns, Part 2
Gordon Home
Normandy’s ancient stones hold echoes of medieval turbulence and pastoral calm, inviting travelers to trace the history embedded in its steeples, timber-framed houses, and storied castle ruins.
The Doré Bible Gallery, Volume 2
Unknown
A father leads his son up a mountain to sacrifice him, only to be stopped at the last second. From divine tests of faith to bloody military victories, this volume captures pivotal moments of sacred ancient narrative.
Lloyd's Treatise on Hats, with Twenty-Four Engravings: Containing Novel Delineations of His Various Shapes, Shewing the Manner in Which They Should Be Worn
Robert Lloyd
To master the art of the headpiece is to define one’s standing in the world, as a well-chosen brim acts not merely as a covering, but as a silent proclamation of character and social grace.