National Gallery of Art, Washington

by John Walker

Book Overview

A history of the gallery from its inception in the 1930s accompanies more than one thousand reproductions of the nation's art treasures housed in the great museum. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810903369
• ISBN13: 9780810903364
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: ABRAMS
• Length: 696 Pages
• Weight: 4.63 lbs.

Customer Reviews

wrong size info

The picture of the book and the size of the book are wrong. The book is much smaller than what I expected

Wonderful reproductions & informative text!

This big, beautiful book should be on any art lover's shelf! A treasury of reproductions of the world's best art is contained here. The reproductions are excellent; colors are preserved in all their glory. Walker's text is informative & interesting. The next best thing to actually visiting the National Gallery is owning this book.

Wonderful reproductions & informative text!

This big, beautiful book should be on any art lover's shelf! A treasury of reproductions of some of the world's best art is contained here. The reproductions are excellent; colors are preserved in all their glory. Walker's text is informative and consistently interesting. The next best thing to actually visiting the National Gallery is owning this book.

A rich selection of works from a great national treasure

This is a large book full of pictures of beautiful artworks. While there are some photos of sculpture and some of drawings, the bulk of what is reproduced here is painting. While many pages have multiple artworks, there are also quite a few where the painting is given a full page for more close observation and study. The quality of the reproductions is quite good, if not quite superb. The captions and text describing the art and artists are very good and most helpful for the general reader. The book opens with several articles on the National Gallery and its history and policies. The plates are organized chronologically and by the national schools of their times. The earliest artworks are circa the 13th century and concludes with works of the 20th century. You could spend many days enjoying this glorious selection of art and still find many more days of study before you exhaust all that is offered in this fine book about a great national treasure.

Beautiful Book!

This is a beautiful book! The color plates are very nice and are good representations of the actual paintings. Brief histories are also presented. I bought it after my first visit to the National Gallery of Art and before my second visit. I enjoyed the second visit much more because I felt that I really knew what was going on with the artists and paintings. Get the book and then go to the National Gallery of Art!

A Classic

This book is one of my favorites, and has been for many years. Its beautiful color illustrations are grouped by the period and country in which they were created. The book presents works (mostly paintings) from many countries (mostly Western) beginning in the Byzantine era, extending up until the early twentieth century. Many of the works are accompanied by art historical abstracts which offer insight for both the inexperienced and learned art enthusiast. This is a great book to have around as an extensive survey of Western painting.