Author:Julian Barnes
The updated edition of Julian Barnes’ best-loved writing on art, with seven new exquisite illustrated essays
‘Flaubert believed that it was impossible to explain one art form in terms of another, and that great paintings required no words of explanation. Braque thought the ideal state would be reached when we said nothing at all in front of a painting. But we are very far from reaching that state. We remain incorrigibly verbal creatures who love to explain things, to form opinions, to argue... It is a rare picture which stuns, or argues, us into silence. And if one does, it is only a short time before we want to explain and understand the very silence into which we have been plunged.’
Julian Barnes began writing about art with a chapter on Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa in his 1989 novel A History of the World in 10½ Chapters. Since then he has written a series of remarkable essays, chiefly about French artists, which trace the story of how art made its way from Romanticism to Realism and into Modernism.
Fully illustrated in colour throughout, Keeping an Eye Open contains Barnes’ essays on Géricault, Delacroix, Courbet, Manet, Morisot, Fantin-Latour, Cézanne, Degas, Cassatt, Redon, Van Gogh, the legendary critic Huysmans, Bonnard, Vuillard, Vallotton, Braque, Magritte, Oldenburg, Howard Hodgkin and Lucian Freud. It also offers new perspectives on the fruitful relationship between writers and artists, and on the rivalry among Russian collectors of French art in the late 19th century.
‘A typically elegant and absorbing book by one of the greatest contemporary English writers.’ Guardian *Books of the Year*
‘Gave me a new confidence in how to understand and, more importantly, enjoy wandering around an exhibition.’ Mariella Frostrup
‘My book of the year.’ Natalie Haynes, Independent
[A] beautifully produced and judiciously illustrated collection.
—— Keith Miller, 4 stars , Daily TelegraphThe essay on Lucian Freud...is completely brilliant. I feel uplifted by it... It is a wonderful book.
—— Celia PaulI became entirely mesmerised by Barnes’ prose… Keeping an Eye Open is a rich and thoughtful book that should not be rushed. These essays are too full of chiaroscuro, their flashes of illumination too fascinating, their connections too interesting for a cursory reading.
—— Roma Tearne , IndependentIt’s a readable, riveting, informed work with sharp, marvelous anecdotes and observations. In this beautifully illustrated book you’re in great company. Barnes is a sane and steady guide… Wonderful stuff.
—— Niall McMonagle , Irish IndependentExtremely rewarding, informative, attentive, thoughtful, entertaining essays.
—— David Sexton , Evening StandardThis is an erudite, entertaining and highly personal collection of essays from the Booker Prize-winning novelist.
—— Sebastian Shakespeare , TatlerFor their insights all these essays are worth reading.
—— Brian Sewell , OldieBarnes’s essays abound in verbal images that are pictorially vivid.
—— Peter Conrad , ObserverThis magnificent survey draws its strength from its intensely personal focus, each piece reverberating off others despite the long span of their composition. It’s a stream of thinking, over years, rather than a set of disparate essays… [A] fascinating and brilliant book.
—— Jan Dalley , Financial TimesThe pieces show Barnes to be a sympathetic and enthusiastic critic, with a tremendous ability to convey the visceral impact of a painting.
—— Ian Critchley , Sunday TimesA brilliant collection of essays by the novelist.
—— Mail on Sunday[An] always entertaining and enlightening collection.
—— Alan Taylor , HeraldIf only all art writing were as good as this.
—— Michael Prodger , New Statesman[An] engrossing collection.
—— Jonathan Meades , SpectatorBarnes weaves biography, history, philosophy [together] in this fascinating, richly illuminating and beautifully written book.
—— Claire Wrathall , Art QuarterlyHard not to see this being my book of the year.
—— Natalie Haynes , IndependentThere’s no hint of pretentiousness here, so why not revel in Barnes’ wit and arch insight.
—— Fatima Hasan , Radio TimesIn Keeping an Eye Open [Barnes] proves to be a thoughtful observer of art, and a keen student of its history.
—— Hannah Shaddock , Radio TimesAbsorbing.
—— John Boland , Irish Independent[Barnes] is bold, acerbic and free from phony reverence. He is also genuinely fascinated by visual art in itself and not as a prompt for flights of prosodic fancy. The pieces are replete with unashamed pleasure in looking and teasing out connections.
—— Alexander Adams , JackdawFully illustrated in colour throughout, this is a fascinating and insightful look into the world of art from Romanticism to Realism.
—— Good Book GuideThe essays are not just novel in form but clear and even elegantly written.
—— Sam Rose , Times Literary SupplementCombining what is clearly a life-long love of art with an admirable depth of knowledge, Barnes brings a novelist’s eye to the gallery wall and, with this, a fresh, accessible approach to the stories being told in each painting.
—— Lucy Scholes , IndependentThought-provoking, beautifully presented, tender.
—— Rachel Joyce , ObserverBarnes has a wonderful eye for what makes a good picture, and a command of language that again and again allows readers to share what he sees.
—— Andrew Scull , Times Literary SupplementWell-informed and deeply admiring, but never didactic.
—— Prue Leith , Woman and Home[It] gave me a new confidence in how to engage with, understand and, more importantly, enjoy wandering around an exhibition.
—— Mariella Frostrup , ObserverFor those…insecure when viewing art, not always sure how to decode it or emotionally engage with it, this offers a lifeline…Utterly compelling.
—— Mail on Sunday , Mariella FrostrupA typically elegant ad absorbing book by one of t great contemporary English Writers, and with strong Gallic undertones – a wonderful set of essays about artists, many of them French, covering the period from Romanticism through to modernism.
—— Terry Lempiere , GuardianOpinionated, enthusiastic, witty and beautifully written.
—— Charlotte Heathcote , Sunday ExpressJulian Barnes is best known for his fiction...but he's also an excellent art writer... Peppered with personal insights and select historical detail, each piece is as engaging as the next
—— Millie Watson , Citizen FemmeUnusually moving.
—— William Leith , Evening Standard