Another Part of the Wood: A Self Portrait

by Kenneth Clark

Book Overview

Clean unmarked copy in dust jacket. Deckle edge. Brown boards with gold imprint on spine. Tiny hole on inside end page. DJ is very good with normal shelf and edge wear from normal handling. Price on... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060107839
• ISBN13: 9780060107833
• Release Date: January 1975
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 287 Pages
• Weight: 1.29 lbs.

Customer Reviews

"The insatiable joy in the contemplation of works of art"

This autobiography covers the first four decades of the life of Kenneth Clark. It is written with great elegance, irony and humor. It tells of his growing up as only child in a family of great material wealth, of his early love of works of art, of his remarkable apprenticeship as the assistant of Bernard Berenson( In this it gives a vivid portrait of Berenson, a summary of his life- work ) and his coming to head the 'National Gallery' and be a leading figure in the World of Art. It is a book which not only gives an inside look at the world of art acquistion, the world of the great museums, but also provides an interesting set of social portraits of those in the social worlds Clark made his way through. An outsider, and loner Clark was nonetheless a keen observer of people. Aside from Berenson there are many notables in his gallery from Edith Wharton to Winston Churchill. Still the heart of the biography is Clark's love of works of art and his appreciation of them. Whether it was hanging paintings in the family's private gallery or trekking with Berenson through Tuscan villages in search of great works of art Clark found himself most at home in this world of aesthetic delights. I found the work an especially enjoyable one, and particularly loved his description of the life at Berenson's I Tatti. Whether he is writing about the disastrous moral effect of being superrich and having no one who dares oppose one's every whim and wish, or about the way Berenson who dreamed to be a Goethelike poet- thinker sold his ideal future away by becoming the 'expert authenticator' of masterpieces Clark gracefully provides insight and knowledge into the human situation. This is, in terms Clark would I believe, approve of, a truly 'life-enhancing work.'