The Last Romantics: The Romantic Tradition in British Art: Burne-Jones to Stanley Spencer

Rating:
Summary: An Indispensible book
Review: Quite simply the best book/catalogue of it's type I have ever seen. The presentation of the book is good, as is the reproduction of the paintings. The short biographies of the artists are quite simply the brilliant, and contain more information than much longer articles. If you only have one book about late romantic art have this one.

Rating:
Summary: Superb, so far as it goes
Review: This review is based on the 1995 UK reissue.

What a superb book! An awesome depth of scholarship, but arrayed in a palatable semi-encylopaedia -like arrangement. Wonderful reproductions of all manner of rare paintings, many in colour and many at a size large enough to see fine detail and even brush-strokes. If you think you've "seen" some of these works on the web, these reproductions will make you think the web versions look very fuzzy and 'off-color'.

Three gripes: 1) the sub-title would lead you to think that the book covers the post-1930 neo-Romanticism revival and on through the Second World War. True Stanley Spencer is in here briefly, but only three early works and they are not his best. Otherwise, coverage after around 1929 is poor. 2) no index! 3) it's mostly painting - no literature or poetry, no music, no photography, no film-making, very little sculpture. There are whole books yet to be written on post-1900 British Romanticism that go 'beyond painting'. But until we get them, enjoy this gem of a book.