Great Artists: The Lives of 50 Painters Explored Through Their Work
A benchmark for intelligent, engaging nonfiction, this superbly designed  book is written and illustrated with a lushness that takes the breath away.  Robert Cumming is chairman of Christie's education department: he knows  his art history.  But he also knows how to seduce you with the sheer beauty  of the material, and the well-placed pointer to telling details.  Fifty  double-page spreads cover artists from da Vinci and Rubens to Monet,  Picasso, and Pollock. Each spread is a concentrated master-class on the  life, the style, and the influence. Check out the luminous full-color  reproductions of "Bacchus" and "The Conversion of St. Paul," then read the  opening sentence above them--"One of the few great artists to have a  criminal record, Caravaggio was violent, loutish, and frequently under  arrest"--and see if you can resist the temptation to read on.Great Artistsis a dream of a  book that adults and their older children will fight over. (Ages 12 to  adult)--Richard Farr