Paul Johnson
Brushing Up Against The Best
Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings
By Susan J Barnes, Nora De Poorter, Oliver Millar, Horst Vey
Yale University Press 692pp £125
IN THE LAST generation the output of high-quality art books has been transformed by modern colour-reproduction techniques and by outsourcing the printing to Asia. I notice that, in my own library, books on painting published before 1970 are now usually out of date, and unless they have a superlative text they have to struggle to keep a place on my shelves. (It is a different matter with sculpture.) Leading this ascent into excellence has been Yale University Press of New Haven, Connecticut (which also houses the great Paul Mellon gallery and research centre for the study of British art). Its art books are innumerable and nearly all worth possessing, and I must have about two hundred Yale volumes in my art library. In particular they put out marvellous catalogues raisonnis of the Old Masters, worth investing in since they are of the only kind of art book sure to keep its value. The latest, on Van Dyck's paintings, is of a high standard in all respects - text, reproductions, printing, paper and binding - and is a most enviable possession.
Van Dyck is the painter most admired by the English upper classes and has been ever since Charles I brought him to London in the 1630s. He is the one they most wish to see hanging on their walls. It is illustrative that, when Reynolds visited Gainsborough on his deathbed,
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm