I have consulted many books for this course. Many of them come from the library that I started as a student sixty years ago; they are old friends, but not illustrated up to modern standards. I have also bought a number of books in the past few months which suggest that scholarship in the field has moved on: the study of major artists and style-labels is out; context and continuity is in. I cite relatively recent books for preference, but include some older ones particularly valuable for their text. I make no claim to completeness; in general I have chosen books whose balance of information and entertainment matches my own teaching. I have also included AMAZON links and prices in what seemed to be the most reasonable format, but note that many of these are available used or in other editions. rb.

 
Jump to:   Renaissance   Baroque   Vienna   Romanticism   America   Modern

General Histories

It would be nice if there were books on the geography of art as well as its history, but this does not seem to be the case. But people do need a general history. The enormous old college textbooks like Gardner and Janson are still around, more expensive than ever, but available for rental. For purchase, however, I suggest the first four books below: a readable oldie in a new edition, an absorbing new account by a non-specialist, a vast scrapbook of pics and facts, and a fascinating pocketbook.

  
Gombrich, EH: The Story of Art. 16th edition, Phaidon 1995.
AMAZON $19
  This history by a former professor of mine is apparently the best-selling art book of all time. Gombrich specifically targets "the young teenager with an enquiring mind" (the bar/bat mitzvah market), so it is highly readable. But he never talks down, so the book works equally well for undergraduates and the general reader. Since I used it in my own teaching, all the illustrations have been redone in color, which is especially good since Gombrich makes a point of never discussing anything he cannot illustrate.
  
Johnson, Paul: Art, a New History. Harper, 2003.
AMAZON $36
  I include this specifically because Johnson is a generalist rather than an academic art historian, and his views on respected masters can be refreshingly blunt. But although the illustrations are all in excellent color, there are not a lot of them; this is a book you read for its text, not to scan its picures. I find Johnson is especially good on the 19th century (one chapter is titled "Painting the American World and its Wonders") and splendidly provocative as he moves through the 20th century towards the 21st.
  
Hodge, Susie: The Short Story of Art. Laurence King, 2017.
AMAZON $16
  No, this won't replace a full history, because it does not explicitly connect the dots. But those dots—the hundred or more artworks from Lascaux to Damien Hirst—are well-chosen, well-illustrated, and excellently annotated, with helpful sidebars and supporting information. In addition, Susie Hodge has separate sections on art movements, themes, and techniques. The variety of approaches is interesting since they slice the art pie in different and often unexpected ways. Plus, this is a book that feels good in the hand. Hodge has also written other books in the same series on modern art, women artists, and architecture.
  
Marceau, Jo, editor: Art, a World History. DK Publishing, 1998.
Welton, Jude, editor: Art That Changed the World. DK Publishing, 2013.
AMAZON $6 (Marceau, used)      AMAZON $25 (Welton)
  I had intended to recommend the Marceau book, listed first above. I have become a fan of these big DK coffee-table-sized books, with hundreds of pages covered with color illustrations, informative sidebars, and regular text. This one covers all of Western art, but also lives up to its "world history" title by devoting a lot of space to other cultures. However, it seems that the paperback edition is no longer in print, though it can still be bought remarkably cheaply second-hand. Looking through Amazon, it seems that the second book from the same publishers listed above does much the same thing, perhaps even at higher quality, though I haven't seen it for myself.
  
Zaczek, Iain, ed. A Chronology of Art. Thames & Hudson, 2018.
AMAZON $30
  I came upon this in a library the other day and was struck by its presentation of an eclectic selection of artworks (some quite surprising) set against a timeline of political and cultural history, thus treating art history as part and parcel of history in general, not as a hermetic discipline. However, while the largest reproductions are good, many of the smaller ones would be better viewed on the web.
  
Prettejohn, Elizabeth. Beauty and Art: 1750-2000. Oxford History of Art, 2005.
AMAZON $22
  I am putting this here because Prettejohn covers such a wide period. But this is not a history so much as an examination of a central question in aesthetics: what do we mean by "beautiful"? Her approach, which is somewhat abstract at first, pays dividends in the last chapters when she applies it to the art of our own time.

Middle Ages and Renaissance

I have decided not to include any of the classic books on the Renaissance here, such as Vasari in the 16th century, Burckhardt in the 19th, or Berenson in the 20th. Between them, they have contributed to an Italy-centered view of art emerging painfully from the Middle Ages, rediscovering classical Humanism, and reaching perfection shortly after 1500 with the art of Michelangelo and Raphael. This is discussed in the introduction to the Campbell book below, and several of the articles in it. Most of the books I list below (almost all from the Oxford History of Art series) challenge, expand, or annotate this view: with some, this is a strength; with others, a problem. If you buy just one book, make it the Nash!

  
Sekules, Veronica: Medieval Art. Oxford History of Art, 2001.
AMAZON $19
  I bought this to fill a gap in my knowledge; it read very smoothly and interested me throughout, though I am not sure that I ended with a clear picture of its message; perhaps that gap was too large to be filled by a single reading! Sekules' approach is thematic rather than chronological or stylistic; her chapter headings are A Sense of Place, Artists, Art and Power in the Latin Church from the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Century, Design and Devotion 1200-1500, Image and Learning, Art and War, and Pleasures; she avoids the terms "Gothic" altogether. All of which makes this a good example of the contextual emphasis of the Oxford series.
  
Nash, Susie: Northern Renaissance Art. Oxford History of Art, 2008.
AMAZON $25
  My top book of the month! Nash takes the same contextual approach as Sekules above and Welch below, but she explains it in such a way as to convince you that no other approach is possible. Her account of Northern art from every imaginable angle—technical, aesthetic, economic, political, sociological, and more—was a revelation, making me believe that this was where it was at, in the 15th century at least, not south of the Alps in Italy. My only quibble is that, unlike the other books in the series, the color plates are dark and hard to make out; but the text won me over, and there is always the internet.
  
Campbell, Gordon, editor: The Oxford Illustrated History of the Renaissance. Oxford 2019.
AMAZON $22
  This is a compendium of substantial articles by nine different scholars. It interrogates the traditional evolutionary art-centered view of the Renaissance mentioned above, expanding its frame to take in other countries, other periods, and other topics such as war, government, religion, the performing arts, and literature. The chapters on art and architecture in Italy and Flanders are each about 50 pages long, and are probably as good a compressed account as you will find, though the illustrations are not numerous enough to carry the argument by themselves.
  
Welch, Evelyn: Art and Society in Italy, 1350–1500. Oxford History of Art, 1997.
AMAZON $17
  On the face of it, this has everything going for it: clear layout, good illustrations, coverage that begins half a century earlier than most accounts, and a wide range of viewpoints, typical of the context-based approach of this series. But it left me frustrated. While Welch includes numerous artworks that don't figure in older histories, she is almost perverse in limiting the coverage of those that do. And unlike Susie Nash above, she does not really explain why she takes this approach. So as a corrective or supplement to traditional histories, this has much value, but it will not substitute for them. And it stops at 1500, just on the cusp of the High Renaissance.
  
Graham-Dixon, Andrew: Renaissance. BBC, 1999.
AMAZON $6+ (used)
  I had hoped to have been able to put in at least one traditional artist-centered history of the Renaissance to balance the various context-based books above, but this is not it. On the other hand, deriving as it does from a BBC series of six television programs, it is engaging, well-illustrated, and quite original in its grouping of ideas. Something of this can be seen from the chapter titles, with a brief quote from the foreword about each: In Search of Origins (about its mixed origins and essentially impure character), The Pure Radiance of the Past (the contribution of 15th-century Florence to the development of western thought and art), The Journey of the Magus (an investigation of the genesis of the idea of genius), Apocalypse (the relationship between the renaissance and the reformation), Light and Liberty (Venice, the most unusual and, perhaps, the quintessential renaissance city), The End of the Renaissance (how the Renaissance came to an end, if indeed it did, and speculations on its legacy).

Given the lack of traditional histories of Renaissance Art (for instance, those by Heinrich Wölfflin, Bernard Berenson, Cecil Gould, or Peter and Linda Murray) in modern illustrated editions, I can only suggest that the best preparation for reading the books listed above might be the relevant chapters in a complete history, for example Chapters 13 through 18 in Gombrich's Story of Art.

Baroque

It is difficult with this period to steer between academic monographs and coffee-table fluff. Most of the books for the general reader deal with famous artists (and not all of those) rather than offering a general view. However, I learned a great deal from the two standard texts listed first below, and recommend them despite their price because I found them absorbingly written, informative, and beautifully illustrated.

  
Neuman, Robert: Baroque and Rococo Art and Architecture. Pearson, 2013.
AMAZON KINDLE $75
  Yes, this is ridiculously expensive, and the paperback version is only available for single-semester rental, not purchase. But try the free Kindle sample and see what you are getting. Neuman covers the entire field, but includes a lot of significant individual detail. He is particularly good on the interpenetration of the arts (painting, architecture, sculpture) which is such an important part of baroque. Even on Kindle, the illustrations are excellent, and the text is always readable. I had not meant to buy it, but once I read the sample chapter, I couldn't resist.
  
Slive, Seymour: Dutch Painting 1600–1800. Pelican History of Art, Yale 1998.
AMAZON $18
  This is a version of the old Pelican History of Art volume, which were big hard-bound books with hundreds of black and white pictures at the end. But Slive has virtually rewritten the text, and now that the illustrations actually appear next to what he is writing about, the whole experience comes alive. Yes, many of the pictures are still in black and white, but the color ones are as good as any I have ever seen in a book, especially the full-page details which are simply incredible. I simply do not know a better single-volume book on Dutch 17th-century art.
  
Dupont, Jacques, and François Mathey. The Seventeenth Century: Caravaggio to Vermeer. Skira, 1951.
AMAZON $7 (used)
  These big Swiss-produced Skira books were notable for their outstanding color illustrations, tipped in as separate sheets rather than printed with the text. This alone makes it worth picking up a good used volume. The selections maintain a fine balance between the unavoidable and the less well known. The featured artists are Caravaggio, La Tour, Velázquez, Le Nain, Rembrandt, Rubens, Poussin, and Vermeer, though of course there are many others. I am interested in the chapter headings too, although the text is not extensive: Plays of Light, Forms in Movement, Renderings of Volume; Color, Texture, Emotion; A New Awareness of Time; Color Rhythms, Architectural Composition; and The Ordering of Space. There are excellent capsule bios in an appendix (87 artists).
  
Careri, Giovanni. Baroques. Photographs by Ferrante Ferranti. Princeton, 2003.
AMAZON $17 (used)
  Despite my animadversions on coffee-table books, this one is remarkable for Ferrante Ferranti's beautiful color photographs, which are outstanding. The text is not scholarly, but valuable in cutting across the more usual divisions by country, medium, and even period. Careri's emphasis is clearly on the flamboyant side of the baroque as opposed to its realism, and the book has that in spades. I like the fact that Careri is so broad in his range of categories, seldom confining himself to a single medium (and never to painting alone), and geographical coverage (with a lot from Eastern Europe and South America).
  
Mitford, Nancy: The Sun King. New York Review Books, 2012.
AMAZON $10
  Don't be fooled by the date above; this is a reissue of a classic by the brilliant English biographer Nancy Mitford, first published in 1966. Although this is illustrated, you would buy it primarily for its text, which reads almost like a novel—which is hardly surprising, since this was Mitford's first metier.
  
Levey, Michael: Rococo to Revolution. Thames & Hudson, 1985.
AMAZON $6 (used)
  When originally published in 1966, this was probably the best compact account of 18th-century art, especially in France—a period that is generally under-represented. Like other books in the Thames & Hudson World of Art series, most of the ilustrations are in black-and-white, so you need to read it with Google at your side.
  
Craske, Matthew: Art in Europe, 1700–1830. Oxford History of Art, 1997.
AMAZON $22
  I have this on order, and have only browsed through it online. It covers much the same period as the Levey book above. As a volume in the Oxford History of Art series, it will be well produced, with excellent illustrations. As a member of that same series, it will take a significantly different view from Levey's, discussing the art in its social context, rather than as a procession of great artists. It also has additional value for our course by extending its reach to Eastern Europe and Spain.

I am aware that the above suggestions are partial at best. The Neuman is good on everything it covers, but the book is expensive. There is only one book on Dutch art, but the Slive is all you need. Unfortunately, I do not know of any equivalent for France, hence my inclusion of the Mitford and the two books on the 18th century.

Vienna

Most books relating to this class are either quite general or excessively academic; I have found none that match the balance between the famous and obscure for which I myself was aiming. For books on Mozart, I strongly recommend William Mann. I have only a passing acquaintance with the other three, and include them only for people wanting to read up on certain aspects of the class in considerably more detail. There is nothing easily accessible on Salieri or the opera scene more generally.

  
Mann, William: The Operas of Mozart. Oxford, 1977.
AMAZON $9 (used)
  For years, this has been my go-to reference book on the Mozart operas, including the early ones. Each chapter begins with history and context and then moves to a detailed synopsis with copious musical examples. The latter might be off-putting for some readers, but you can skim right past the music. Mann was the former music critic of The Times in London, and accessible writing was his stock in trade. I know no other survey as good.
  
Heartz, Daniel: Mozart's Operas. University of California, 1992.
AMAZON $10+ (used)
Till, Nicholas: Mozart and the Enlightenment. Norton, 1993.
AMAZON $15
  Both these books address Mozart's operas in the social and philosophical context of Enlightenment Vienna. Heartz was one of the leading musicologists in the field; his writing is academic, but he is full of stimulating angles. Till is an opera stage director, and his insights are those of a man of the theater with a scholarly bent (and thus probably closer to my own).
  
Robertson, Angus: The Crossroads of Civilization: A History of Vienna. Pearson, 2013.
AMAZON KINDLE $19
  This is a serious history of the city over many centuries. I have not been able to sample the chapter covering Joseph II, but have every reason to suppose it will offer a deeper context than I could.

Romanticism

You won't easily find books on Romanticism that combine worthwhile text with good color illustrations. Of the items I list below, only the Andrews book below manages to do both, though its scope is far wider, and the slim Wolf book is more than just its pictures. Otherwise, you would be better off relying on the internet for pictures, and choosing books for their *writing*. And in that respect, I find the Clark and Honour books still the best out there, despite their age.

  
Clark, Kenneth: Landscape into Art. Penguin, 1949 / Harper & Row, 1979.
AMAZON $14
Clark, Kenneth: Landscape into Art. Folio Society, 2013.
AMAZON $25 (used)
  I keep sampling more modern books, but keep returning to this one for its superb text. The 132 illustrations, though, are all in black and white, and there are many more pictures that Clark mentions but does not illustrate. Fortunately we have the internet, where everything is easily available. I am told that the Folio Society edition has everything in color, so it might be worth picking up second-hand if you can find one; I haven't seen it myself.
  
Andrews, Malcolm: Landscape and Western Art. Oxford History of Art, 2000.
AMAZON $25
  Like other books in the Oxford History of Art series, this does not address its subject in terms of periods and great artists, but by themes and often surprising juxtapositions. Like the best in the series, it is well illustrated (albeit at smallish size) and approachable in style. So while you can't dip into it like a reference book, it does make for thought-provoking reading.
  
Honour, Hugh: Romanticism. Westview, 1979.
AMAZON $6+ (used)
  More than any book I have seen, this one truly attempts to explore the range of Romanticism by being unafraid to stray across its borders. Its range is wide, whether in period, geographical scope, or topic. Honour has the knack of pulling ideas from all sorts of places and putting them together in singular ways. The book is copiously illustrated, but all in black and white, so you will need Google by your side. It is available on Amazon in various expensive formats, but buying it used is probably the way to go.
  
Wilton, Andrew, and Anne Lyles: The Great Age of British Watercolours, 1750–1880. Prestel, 1997.
AMAZON $8+ (used)
  This began as an exhibition catalogue, so makes no claim to selectivity. But both its text and numerous color illustrations are excellent, and it covers a suprising amount of ground. Even though this was the subject of my own graduate thesis, I still found an enormous amount to learn from it.
  
Wolf, Norbert: Romanticism. Taschen, 2007
AMAZON $9+ (used)
  All right, this is a coffee-table book, but its illustrations (at least in the hardback edition which I own) are first rate, its introductory essay is very good, and its coverage—which extends well beyond the usual art-history heroes, and includes eleven German artists—is remarkably wide.
  
Reed, John: Schubert. Oxford Master Musicians Series, 2001.
AMAZON $9
  Reed has written several books on Schubert, including a compendious companion to the songs, but this update of an older entry in a venerable series is probably the best introduction to the composer for the general reader.
  
Leersen, Joop ed.: Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe. University of Amsterdam.
ONLINE free
  This huge project, colloquially known as "ERNIE," covers just about every aspect of 19th-century Romantic Nationalism you can imagine, and then some. In book form, it costs many hundreds of dollars, but the link above is to a free website that they appear to keep constantly updated. It is not an easy site to use, but if you want information on something specific, you are eventually likely to find it—and far more besides.

America

I know that American art truly becomes an international force only after 1945, so it may seem arbitrary to separate this section from the one that follows it. Nonetheless, it is hard to find good books on the American 19th or indeed earlier 20th centuries, so it is worthwhile to devote a separate section to the period, as I did in my classes.

  
Novak, Barbara: American Painting of the Nineteenth Century. Oxford, 3rd edition, 2007.
AMAZON $10 (used)
  When it was first published in 1969, Hilton Kramer in The New York Times Book Review called it "surely the best book ever written on the subject." Novak places the art of the time fully into the context of its philosophy and literature. Even in its later editions, though, the book has an older and less attractive feel than the one below. Most of the illustrations are in black-and-white, though there is a small selection of good color plates in the middle.
  
Groseclose, Barbara: Nineteenth-Century American Art. Oxford History of Art, 2000.
AMAZON $8 (used)
  Despite the apparent discrepancy in dates, this is in fact a more recent book than the Novak above, and benefits from the excellent production quality of all the Oxford books, and an authorial viewpoint that addresses the subject both thematically and in relation to its time.
  
Prown, Jules David: American Painting: from its Beginnings to the Armory Show.
Rose, Barbara: American Painting: the Twentieth Century. 2 volumes in slipcase, Skira, 1970.
AMAZON $21 (used)
  I have already expressed my admiration for the quality of these large Skira books with their tipped-in plates. The two volumes in their slipcase are a joy to have on the shelves, though I think they can be bought separately used. The Prown book deals mainly with the 19th century, with copious illustrations and an excellent text. Rose was one of the most perceptive critics in the postwar period, and her account takes us neatly through Abstract Expressionism, with the beginnings of Pop and Minimalism, but of course a lot has happened since 1970 when the book was published.
  
Doss, Erika: Twentieth-Century American Art. Oxford History of Art, 2002.
AMAZON $25
  Doss begins her book with two images of the Virgin Mary—a painting from 1891 and a sculpture from 1992—neither of which I knew, totally different in aesthetic and raising relevant questions about the roles of women, religion, and of art itself. Beginning with the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, she covers an important transitional period in American art, and by continuing it the 2000 Whitney Biennale she touches on Conceptual Art, Feminist Art, Black Art, the Culture Wars of the 1980s, and the pluralistic arts at the end of the century. Needless to say, this is as thought-provoking, well-written, and copiously illustrated as all the other Oxford histories.
  
Mellers, Wilfrid: Music in a New Found Land. Faber & Faber, 1988.
AMAZON $21 (used)
  First published in 1964, this is an old book, and by a Brit not an American. But by the same token, it has the great advantage of looking from far enough away to see the forest rather than getting lost in the trees. It is also particularly strong on nineteenth and turn-of-the-century American music, which so often gets overlooked as a mere background to modernism. To find out more about the modern American story, look at the relevant chapters of the Ross book below.
  
Ross, Alex: The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. Picador, 2007.
AMAZON $23 (used)
  A Pulitzer Prize finalist, this is quite simply the most readable account of 20th-century music that I know. While a lot of it is naturally concerned with European music, the chapters on America (4, 8, 14, and much else in the postwar section) are illuminating without being superficial. Nor is Ross limited in his interests to concert-hall-classical; his chapter 14, "Beethoven was Wrong," is subtitled ("Bop, Rock, and the Minimalists").

Twentieth Century and Beyond

The first book on this list is a comprehensive view of Modernism in all its aspects, by no means just art; it is rather dense, though. By contrast, the next two items are picture books dealing specifically with German Expressionism (the subject of the first hour of my penultimate class), though the shortish texts are good as far as they go. In the second hour, I concentrated on postwar art in America, but of course the contemporary art world has become global, and that is the focus of most of the books listed here, and of my final class.

  
Gay, Peter: Modernism: the Lure of Heresy. Norton, 2008.
AMAZON $30
  The winner of the National Book Award, Gay's 600-page book is as comprehensive a treatment of the subject as you are likely to find. Although it is dense and poorly illustrated in black-and-white, it has the great advantage of including chapters on Prose and Poetry, Music and Dance, Architecture and Design, and Drama and Movies.
  
Wolf, Norbert: Expressionism. Taschen, 2015.
Bassie, Ashley: Expressionism. Parkstone, 2014.
AMAZON $10 (Wolf)      AMAZON $14 (Bassie)
  The Wolf book (first published in 2004, so slightly the older of the two) is recommended for the generally superb full-page color illustrations typical of the Taschen editions. But the Bassie is also well-illustrated, and may have a stronger text. While Wolf confines himself to prewar Expressionism, Bassie casts her net wider to include such artists as Schiele and Klee. Either book, though, would give you a good collection of colorful artworks.
  
Lewis, David Levering, ed.: The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader Penguin, 1995.
AMAZON $23
  An excellent anthology of memoirs, poetry, prose, and plays from the Harlem Renaissance. Although an anthology rather than a history, the various essays in the opening section give a brilliant first-hand account of what it was like to be in Harlem at this exciting time.
  
Brettell, Richard: Modern Art 1851–1929. Oxford History of Art, 1999.
AMAZON $20
  I wish I had known of this book when preparing my class on Modernism (Old Roots, New Shoots), as I find it stimluating from beginning to end. Although Brettell begins with a very rapid survey of all the "-isms" from Realism to Surrealism, he does this only to throw such classifications out of the window, replacing them instead with a vision that places the art in the context of urban capitalism, responses to it, and reactions against it. I am not sure I yet understand all his dualities—for example between "transparent" and "mediated" (or self-aware) art—but even a glance through the illustrations to any one of his chapters, which take you from the mid-nineteenth century well into the twentieth and to countries seldom represented in other art books, promises a roller-coaster ride in itself! [Note, however, that you will still need Google, as Brettell calls upon more artworks than the book can show.]
  
Lucie-Smith: ArToday. Phaidon, 2001.
AMAZON $12 (used)
  Things change so quickly that any book called "Art Today" might as well be titled "Art Yesterday." But Lucie-Smith's 500-page coffee-table book starts with Pop Art, covers with just about every imaginable American style and movement, then zips over to Britain, America outside NYC, Latin America, Russia, the Far East, Africa, the Caribbean, and then to topics like Racial Minorities, Feminist and Gay. It is quite simply the best collection of color illustrations of [almost] contemporary artwork that I could imagine. The hardback book is prohibitive at over $100, but there are numerous reasonably-priced offers used. Do make sure, though, that you are getting at least the 2001 edition, because there are also older ones that are far less comprehensive.
  
Hopkins, David: After Modern Art, 1945–2017. Oxford History of Art, 2018.
AMAZON $24
  Originally stopping at the milennium, the 2018 edition of Hopkins' book includes a 33-page chapter dealing with the new century, so it takes us beyond the scope of the Lucie-Smith collection above. Like all the Oxford History of Art series, it is well illustrated, but you read it mainly for its superb text. Most other books I have read about modern or postmodern art tend to continue the familiar pattern of a displaying a sequence of artworks, which may be innovative in many respects, but can still be represented as an extension of the traditions of the past. But many, if not most, of the illustrations in this book are of things that might not be recognized as art at all. In other words, it is a book about ideas as much as the products of those ideas. I am still working through it, but find it invaluable.

This section contains two books in the Oxford History of Art series—the Brettell and the Hopkins—that I did not know until recently, but now would not be without. And if you just wanted to look at an eclectic and brilliantly selected group of pictures, I could not offer anything better than the Lucie-Smith.
 
For modern American art, see also the later portions of the books by Elizabeth Prettejohn, Barbara Rose, and Erika Doss above.

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