Packed with tales of enchanting lives, this book puts so many forgotten and so often unnamed figures into the spotlight. Telling their stories - in ways I like to think is on their terms - Ruth Millington sheds light on so many figures we know by image, but so often not by name. An exhilarating and fascinating insight into many of the people who have shaped our culture, and who have redefined what we think and know of as 'muse'.

A rich and detailed unravelling of the romanticised myth of the muse. Ruth Millington nimbly returns agency to the pictured people of art history and in doing so reveals their ambitions, creativity and far-reaching influence

'This beautifully illustrated book shines a new light on what constitutes a muse and how important they are to an artist's practice. Enlightening'

This book not only sheds light on a relatively unchartered area of art history but also serves as a feminist crusade

A brilliant book absolutely crammed with surprising stories. Muse flips the easel and brings the models and inspirations of famous works themselves into the spotlight, scraping away old coatings of myth, cliché and ignorance to reveal the true tales of these overlooked figures, and their place of power in the history of art. An essential read that should be on every bookshelf

Ruth Millington's Muse is an essential guide to the inspirational women and men who have shaped art over the centuries. Muse sheds new and persuasive light on a diverse array of models' stories - their lives, hopes and daring actions - restoring their voices in ways that change our perceptions of who they were, and who we are today as a result.

An excellent look at the artist's muse and demystifying the idea of them as merely a passive object of passion

A provocative tome

Ruth Millington's Muse adds another dimension...taking the women (and nine men) on the canvas as her subject...successfully fleshing out the lives behind some of art history's most famous faces

Muse by Ruth Millington is a fascinating book that aims, and one could even say succeeds, to establish a new status for the muse in art history

The Shock of the New redone à la Bill Bryson . . . richly detailed and highly entertaining

Lively, fresh, energetic . . . He explains movements and "isms" with clarity and humour

An astounding book about an astounding place

An intimate perspective on one of the world's greatest institutions. But All the Beauty in the World is about much more: the strange human impulse to make art, the mystery of experiencing art, and what role art can play in our lives. What a gift

This book will change your experience of museums, connecting you with the stories of those who make them possible and revealing the layers of wonder that gather in the quiet halls where art meets modern life. Bringley's keen, warm-hearted dispatches remind us - as art itself should - of our common humanity

Intimate and fascinating

Perhaps most importantly, though, All the Beauty in the World is a story about grief and about beauty, and about how inextricably the two are linked

Nails the very particular thing of spending your days in galleries, and how close you grow to the works and the people that come to see them

Illuminating and transformative

A profound homage to the marvels of a world-class museum and a radiant chronicle of grief, perception, and a renewed embrace of life

Prepare to be wooed by this memoir, which doubles as a loving memoir of the Met from one of its most inside insiders: Patrick Bringliey, who worked at the museum as a guard for a decade.

A beautiful tale about beauty. It is also a tale about grief, balancing solitude and comradeship, and finding joy in both the exalted and the mundane

Bringley's memoir abounds with small details ... but it also has grander subjects to address - namely, solitude, the staying power of art, and grief. ... In the end, All the Beauty in the World is an empathetic chronicle of one museum, the works collected there and the people who keep it running - all recounted by an especially patient observer

Simply wonderful. This funny, moving, beautifully written book takes the reader on a journey that unfolds as epiphanies. It is a testament to the capacity of art to illuminate life

Few know the secrets of the Metropolitan Museum of Art like the guards who roam its two million square feet treasure, keeping an eye on its treasures. For a decade, Patrick Bringley was one of them, and in this moving memoir, he recounts bonding with his colleagues and marveling at the beautiful works of art he is entrusted to protect

A unique workplace memoir that tells the tale of the museum and the people who keep it running

As rich in moving insights as the Met is in treasures, All the Beauty in the World reminds us of the importance of learning not about art, but from it. This is art appreciation at a profound level

An empathetic chronicle of one museum, the works collected there and the people who keep it running - all recounted by an especially patient observer

A profound homage to the marvels of a world-class museum and a radiant chronicle of grief, perception, and a renewed embrace of life

Hessel's beautifully written 500-year survey is a welcome, necessary, addition to the bookshelves

Highly readable and lavishly illustrated... a rich storehouse of groundbreaking female art

Astonishing

This book changes everything. As soon as you open it, it's like you've opened a box of lit fireworks - out soars great artist after great artist. Her retake on the canon has changed it forever

Hessel possesses that rare quality of a public intellectual, whereby she can distill vast amounts of knowledge and history into something accessible, relevant and joyful

Extraordinary