A compelling and authoritative overview of the drawings of Vincent van Gogh, one of the most celebrated and intriguing figures in the history of art.

Vincent van Gogh's (1853-1890) drawings are some of the most familiar and expressive in the history of art. Van Gogh believed that drawing was the 'root of everything', and this was reflected in his remarkable output of over 1,000 works during his short and tragic life; many of them personal, often lonely explorations of the emerging modern world.

This book is the first comprehensive account to celebrate the singularity of the artist's achievements in this field. Arranged broadly thematically, from drawings of potato harvesters to depictions of knotted poplars, pensive studies from life to a sketch of the famous Yellow House in Arles, eminent art historian and curator Christopher Lloyd encourages readers to consider the artist's drawings from a fresh viewpoint: documenting successes and failures, experiments, trials and disappointments. Primarily self-taught, Van Gogh's approach to drawing was instinctual, but he soon recognized the importance of mastering the grammar of art - anatomy, foreshortening, perspective - as well as materials and techniques, in order to express his emotional responses to a subject as vividly as possible. With examples from the artist's voluminous and emotionally charged family correspondence, sketchbooks, and comparative artworks by the Old Masters and contemporaries, this engaging study outlines why drawing is central to Van Gogh's oeuvre, and equal to the intensity and reputation of his paintings.

Featuring works from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam and many other important collections in Europe and the US, this beautifully illustrated volume offers an extensive interpretation of the artist's drawings, beyond what has been published to date.

About the Author:

Christopher Lloyd is an art historian and curator. He was Surveyor of The Queen’s Pictures in the British Royal Collection from 1988 to 2005, and is the author of Edgar Degas: Drawings and Pastels (2014), Paul Cézanne: Drawings and Watercolours (2015), Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Drawings (2019) and Masterpieces: An Art Lover’s Guide to Great Britain and Ireland (2022), all published by Thames & Hudson. His many other publications include art monographs, official catalogues of museum collections and general surveys of the British Royal Collection.

Contents List

Preface
Brief Chronology of the Life of Vincent van Gogh
1. Setting Out
2. Figures
3. Compositional Drawings: Figures and Landscapes
4. Place
5. Landscape
6. Portraits
7. Repetitions
Epilogue

In this generously illustrated and lively book, Christopher Lloyd sets out and interprets the lifelong achievement of Picasso (1881–1973) as a draftsman. Although there have been many publications about his drawings that have tended to focus on particular periods of his career, this stunning volume specifically examines how drawing serves as the vital thread connecting all of Picasso’s art, just as it also links his private world with his public persona of which he was becoming increasingly aware in his later years. 

Picasso and the Art of Drawing ultimately showcases how the basis of the titular artist's style as painter, sculptor, printmaker, and designer was manifestly achieved through drawing. 

About the Author:

Christopher Lloyd is an independent scholar and curator and previously served as Surveyor of The Queen’s Pictures in the British Royal Collection until his retirement in 2005.

A beautifully produced literary art book that restores a collection of drawings and pastels to the heart of the life story of one of the great artists of the 19th century

Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917) was described as 'the most intelligent, the most demanding, the most merciless draughtsman in the world' by the poet and critic Paul Valery and today Degas is considered one of the outstanding draughtsman of the late nineteenth century. His powerful drawings and the pastles, which he himself characterized as 'orgies of colour', are some of the most compelling works in western art.

Drawing was not only the central tenet of Degas's art but also virtually a daily activity. Through an examination of the artist's drawings and pastels, which exist in great number and variety, Christopher Lloyd examines the development of Degas's style and outlines the story of his life in the contexts of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.

Following a broadly chronological approach, Lloyd discusses the wide range of Degas's work: the images of ballet dancers (which form over half of the artist's oeuvre), jockeys, laundresses, milliners and female nudes, as well as the less well-known landscape drawings. With over 200 illustrations that capture the most fleeting of subtleties and shades, this book provides a comprehensive and engaging account of the artist as draughtsman.

Contents List:

Introduction • 1. Beginnings 1853–1855 • 2. Italy 1856–1859 • 3. History Paintings 1860–1865 • 4. Changing Directions 1865–1870 • 5. Confronting the Modern World 1870–1879 • 6. Retreat into the Studio 1880–1890 • 7. Landscape Drawings • 8. ‘The Dying of the Light’ 1890–c. 1912

About the Author:

Christopher Lloyd worked in the Department of Western Art of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford from 1968 to 1988, combining curatorial duties with teaching. During that time he was appointed by Harvard University to a Fellowship at Villa I Tatti in Florence and was Visiting Research Curator of Early Italian Painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was appointed Surveyor of The Queen’s Pictures in the British Royal Collection in 1988 and retired from that post in 2005. He is now engaged in writing and organizing exhibitions on a wide variety of subjects. His publications include monographs on painters, catalogues of museum collections and surveys of the Royal Collection, as well as In Search of a Masterpiece: An Art Lover’s Guide to Great Britain and Ireland, Edgar Degas: Drawings and Pastels and Paul Cézanne: Drawings and Watercolours, all published by Thames & Hudson.