Download or read book Duveen written by Meryle Secrest and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2005-11 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anyone who has admired Gainsborough's Blue Boy of the Huntington Collection in California, or Rembrandt's Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York owes much of his or her pleasure to art dealer Joseph Duveen (1869–1939). Regarded as the most influential—or, in some circles, notorious—dealer of the twentieth century, Duveen established himself selling the European masterpieces of Titian, Botticelli, Giotto, and Vermeer to newly and lavishly wealthy American businessmen—J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Mellon, to name just a few. It is no exaggeration to say that Duveen was the driving force behind every important private art collection in the United States. The first major biography of Duveen in more than fifty years and the first to make use of his enormous archive—only recently opened to the public—Meryle Secrest's Duveen traces the rapid ascent of the tirelessly enterprising dealer, from his humble beginnings running his father's business to knighthood and eventually apeerage. The eldest of eight sons of Jewish-Dutch immigrants, Duveen inherited an uncanny ability to spot a hidden treasure from his father, proprietor of a prosperous antiques business. After his father's death, Duveen moved the company into the riskier but lucrative market of paintings and quickly became one of the world's leading art dealers. The key to Duveen's success was his simple observation that while Europe had the art, America had the money; Duveen made his fortune by buying art from declining European aristocrats and selling them to the "squillionaires" in the United States. "By far the best account of Joseph Duveen's life in a biography that is rich in detail, scrupulously researched, and sympathetically written. [Secrest's] inquiries into early-twentieth-century collecting whet our appetite for a more general history of the art market in the first half of the twentieth century."—John Brewer, New York Review of Books

Download or read book The Odyssey of China s Imperial Art Treasures written by Jeannette Shambaugh Elliot and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2015-07-16 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Odyssey of China's Imperial Art Treasures traces the three-thousand-year history of the emperor's imperial collection, from the Bronze Age to the present. The tortuous story of these treasures involves a succession of dynasties, invasion and conquest, and civil war, resulting in valiant attempts to rescue and preserve the collection. Throughout history, different Chinese regimes used the imperial collection to bolster their own political legitimacy, domestically and internationally. The narrative follows the gradual formation of the Peking Palace Museum in 1925, then its hasty fragmentation as large parts of the collection were moved perilously over long distances to escape wartime destruction, and finally its formal division into what are today two Palace Museums-one in Beijing, the other in Taipei. Enlivened by the personalities of those who cared for the collection, this textured account of the imperial treasures highlights magnificent artworks and their arduous transit through politics, war, and diplomatic reconciliations. Over the years, control of the collections has been fiercely contested, from early dynasties through Mongol and Japanese invaders to Nationalist and Communist rivals- a saga that continues today. This first book-length investigation of the imperial collections will be of great interest to China scholars, historians, and Chinese art specialists. Its tales of palace intrigue will fascinate a wide variety of readers.

Download or read book Treasure and Intrigue written by Graham Harris and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 2002-09-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three hundred years ago, Captain Kidd was hanged for piracy, but before died he claimed to have hidden a vast fortune in the Indies. In the years since, maps to the fabled island have appeared and there have been many attempts to recover that treasure. This book examines Kidd’s life against the backdrop of piracy in the Indian Ocean and concludes that there is much to justify his claim, and even more to his story - a life of piracy thrust upon him by noble backers, men who broke their own laws and then let him die for their crimes.

Download or read book Saving Mona Lisa written by Gerri Chanel and published by Icon Books. This book was released on 2018-09-13 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In August 1939, curators at the Louvre nestled the world's most famous painting into a special red velvet-lined case and spirited her away to the Loire Valley as part of the biggest museum evacuation in history. As the Germans neared Paris in 1940, the French raced to move the masterpieces still further south, then again and again during the war, crisscrossing the southwest of France. Throughout the German occupation, the museum staff fought to keep the priceless treasures out of the hands of Hitler and his henchmen, often risking their lives to protect the country's artistic heritage. Saving Mona Lisa is the sweeping, suspenseful narrative of their struggle.

Download or read book The Rise Of The House Of Duveen written by James Henry Duveen and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2016-01-27 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an exciting portrayal of the history of the Duveen family in the art business up to 1939. “THOUGH MANY REASONS have contributed to impel me to write this hook, the chief one is the memory of my uncle Joel Joseph Duveen. On the death of my father at the untimely age of twenty-nine, when I was four years old, my uncle was appointed my guardian by the Dutch court. He took a constant interest in me as I grew up; and, seeing how much I admired his energy and brilliance, he loved to tell me his interesting experiences. I was an eager listener and made notes of all he told me. He frequently invited me to accompany him on long journeys, and I spent many holidays with him on the Continent; the most pleasurable and exciting parts of these travels with him were the stories of his early life and the reminiscences of his business career. “A friend [...] sent me in 1954 a fascinating book, Duveen, by S. N. Behrman, a gifted American author, which I read with the greatest interest. In it he has produced a brilliant picture of Lord Duveen’s character and methods, and he is to be congratulated on his successful portrait. But this exciting book is chiefly concerned with the period of Lord Duveen; and I am grateful to its author for inspiring me to take up my pen again and place on record the greatness of the older generation who, by more brilliant but less grandiose methods, created the firm Lord Duveen raised to a height that may never again be equalled. “I therefore began [...] to set down my memories of a line of great and intrepid connoisseurs in art. In our careers the art treasures in which we dealt and the great figures who formed our clientele are more interesting than we are ourselves. For this reason I have tried to picture the characters of my family by their adventurous dealings rather than by long biographical sketches; the incidents related are authentic in all details except names, some of which have been disguised for obvious reasons.”

Download or read book Seven years in Vienna August 1907 August 1914 a record of intrigue written by Anonymous and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-07-10 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Seven years in Vienna (August, 1907-August, 1914), a record of intrigue" by Anonymous. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Download or read book The Mona Lisa Vanishes written by Nicholas Day and published by Random House Studio. This book was released on 2023-09-05 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “witty thriller” (The New York Times) for middle-grade readers about how the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre, how the robbery made the portrait the most famous artwork in the world—and how the painting by Leonardo da Vinci should never have existed at all. SIBERT MEDAL WINNER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Publishers Weekly • School Library Journal • Booklist • Kirkus Reviews • NPR • The New York Public Library • The Chicago Public Library • The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books On a hot August day in Paris, just over a century ago, a desperate guard burst into the office of the director of the Louvre and shouted, La Joconde, c’est partie! The Mona Lisa, she’s gone! No one knew who was behind the heist. Was it an international gang of thieves? Was it an art-hungry American millionaire? Was it the young Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, who was about to remake the very art of painting? Travel back to an extraordinary period of revolutionary change: turn-of-the-century Paris. Walk its backstreets. Meet the infamous thieves—and detectives—of the era. And then slip back further in time and follow Leonardo da Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa, through his dazzling, wondrously weird life. Discover the secret at the heart of the Mona Lisa—the most famous painting in the world should never have existed at all. Here is a middle-grade nonfiction, with black-and-white illustrations by Brett Helquist throughout, written at the pace of a thriller, shot through with stories of crime and celebrity, genius and beauty.

Download or read book Vanished Smile written by R.A. Scotti and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-04-06 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On August 21, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci’s most celebrated painting vanished from the Louvre. The prime suspects were as shocking as the crime: Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire, young provocateurs of a new art. The sensational disappearing act captured the world’s imagination. Crowds stood in line to view the empty space on the museum wall. Thousands more waited, as concerned as if Mona Lisa were a missing person, for news of the lost painting. Almost a century later, questions still linger: Who really pinched Mona Lisa, and why? Part love story, part mystery, Vanished Smile reopens the puzzling case that transformed a Renaissance portrait into the most enduring icon of all time.

Download or read book The Art of the Disney Golden Books written by Charles Solomon and published by Disney Editions. This book was released on 2014-04-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book celebrates a legacy that has now thrived for more than eighty years and continues to influence new generations of artists and filmmakers. Through interviews with contemporary animators who recall tracing the characters in their childhood Disney Golden Books, paintings by artists who influenced and inspired the Disney Golden Book illustrations, and a generous complement of Golden Book artwork-much of which was thought to have been lost until very recently-the rich tradition of the series is explored in this vibrant volume.

Download or read book Auctions and Auctioneering written by Ralph Cassady Jr. and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-04-28 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1967.

Download or read book Catalog of the Avery Memorial Architectural Library of Columbia University written by Avery Library and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 846 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Crimes of Paris written by Thomas Hoobler and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2009-04-27 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Turn-of-the-century Paris was the beating heart of a rapidly changing world. Painters, scientists, revolutionaries, poets -- all were there. But so, too, were the shadows: Paris was a violent, criminal place, its sinister alleyways the haunts of Apache gangsters and its cafes the gathering places of murderous anarchists. In 1911, it fell victim to perhaps the greatest theft of all time -- the taking of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Immediately, Alphonse Bertillon, a detective world-renowned for pioneering crime-scene investigation techniques, was called upon to solve the crime. And quickly the Paris police had a suspect: a young Spanish artist named Pablo Picasso....

Download or read book Dictionary Catalog of the Art and Architecture Division written by New York Public Library. Art and Architecture Division and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 800 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Cooking for Picasso written by Camille Aubray and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The French Riviera, spring 1936. It's off-season in the lovely seaside village of Juan-les-Pins, where seventeen-year-old Ondine cooks with her mother in the kitchen of their family-owned Cafe Paradis. A mysterious new patron who's slipped out of Paris and is traveling under a different name has made an unusual request--to have his lunch served to him at the nearby villa he's secretly rented ... Pablo Picasso is at a momentous crossroads in his personal and professional life--and for him, art and women are always entwined ... New York, present day. Caeline, a Hollywood makeup artist who's come home for the holidays, learns from her mother Julie that Grandmother Ondine once cooked for Picasso"--

Download or read book Catalogue of Copyright Entries written by Library of Congress. Copyright Office and published by . This book was released on 1936 with total page 910 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Catalog of Copyright Entries New Series written by Library of Congress. Copyright Office and published by Copyright Office, Library of Congress. This book was released on 1936 with total page 2620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Auctions and Auctioneering written by Ralph Cassady and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: