Customer Reviews

Holbein Portrait Drawings (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

All of the Dover books have very good reproductions of drawings. These books are just the best deal for the money, and I use them all the time in the college where I teach to show students examples of great drawing and fantastic line. All the background an artist needs is there: size, media, year -- very little personal background; it's just a catalog of drawings (words would only slow you down anyway). There may be people who can draw as well as Holbein, but there's nobody better. His work, except for the give-away clothing, looks so modern that you could swear you've seen these people. His line and his observation are perfection. I have expensive books on him, but this book is my favorite.

This was the third Dover Art Library book I bought; it covers the work of one of the most recognized names in Renaissance Art - Hans Holbien. If you don't recognize his name , you've probably seen one of his paintings in one of your history books back in High School. His subjects, as seen in this book, include many members of the court of Henry the VIII. As in the stylistic tradition of Renassiance portraiture, these are contour drawings, and Holbiens craftsmanship is evident in every line. If you can, I also recommend you buy his book of paintings.

I am very disappointed with the book. Holbein's drawings should be extremely delicate, but all that is lost in this book--lines aregrainy and the shading simply is mostly inaccurate, since these are all black-and-white reproductions of colored drawings. They are probably reproductions of reproductions, really. Even the pictures posted on the web look better. Not worth buying, no matter how cheap it is.

Recommend: "Holbein in England". Borrowed it from a library. Well written, great pictures, just expensive.

Nice series of books, these Old Master Portrait Drawings from Dover Art Library. Good material if you want to study portrait drawing. Good reproductions of the drawings. No text, only a short introduction from the publisher and titles with the drawings. The drawings say it all.

If you like Holbein, buy it.
If you are interested in the Tudor Court, buy it.
Either/or - you won't be disappointed.

I found this small book to be just the item I needed to help me make the most accurate Tudor period gable hoods for SCA events. The details of the portraits are quite impressive. All are done in B/W, but this actually goes a long way to show contrasting elements of various garb. This particular book is my most valuable resource (and I have quite an extensive collection!). The book is very well suited to those who would be interested in portraiture, historically based costume creation, and plain old artistic curiosity.