Art In Bloom

ART IN BLOOM is a visual extravaganza celebrating flowers in art. From the beginning of time people have been enriched by their experience and observation of nature and inspired to "imitate" nature in a variety of media---from primitive cave paintings to sentimental Victorian miniatures to the sophisticated oils by 20th century artist Georgia O'Keeffe. ART IN BLOOM illustrates some of the treasures of this genre found in the works of such European and American masters as Jan van Huysman, Claude Monet, Edward Hopper, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Fantin-Latour, John Singer Sargent, Berthe Morisot and Charles Sheeler.

Complementing over 40 superb reproductions of paintings in oil and watercolor, the text explores the history of flowers in art. The first serious use of flowers in art dates to the illuminated manuscripts of the medieval period. During the Renaissance, artists Albrecht Durer and Leonardo da Vinci created extraordinary works illustrating the naturalism and vitality in floral imagery. Some of the best-loved flower paintings in history are those created by the 17th-century Dutch Painters: lush bouquets of voluptuous tulips and roses kissed by the morning dew. The Impressionists filled canvas after canvas with brilliant blossoms using flowers as an ideal subject to explore their "plein air" aesthetic. And in the early part of the twentieth century, with the advent of modernism, flowers once again played an important role in the development of an aesthetic concerned primarily with the properties of form, design and color.

This is the quintessential gift book for art lovers and for anyone who has ever been moved by the breathtaking beauty of flowers.