Richard Parkes Bonington: 'On the Pleasures of Painting'

Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828) was prehaps the most important British landscape painter of his era after Turner and Constable. Although his career spanned less than 10 years, his dazzling virtuosity propelled him immediately to the forefront of the Romantic movement in both France and England. Even after his early death his art continued to influence decades of French artists and critics, most notably Delacroix, Corot and Baudelaire. This illustrated book is a study of Bonington and also a comprehensive survey of his works. In the first half of the book, Patrick Noon discusses Bonington's life and work, focusing on the important role he played in the international romantic movement, defining the unique attributes and development of his style, and offering an interpretive analysis of his art. This section is illustrated with over 60 works by Bonington, by the old masters he admired, and by many of his contemporaries. The second half of the book consists of colour reproductions of 140 of Bonington's paintings, water-colours and prints as well as 25 works by French and English artists with whom he was most closely associated. The works of art are accompanied by discussions of chronology, attribution, dossible influence and meaning.