Francesca Whitlum-Cooper – författare

Between 1898 and his death in 1916, the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi painted more than two dozen pictures of his wife, Ida, seen only from the back.This is her story, told from the front.Copenhagen,1898. Danish painter, Vilhelm Hammershøi is on the cusp of greatness. Nobody knows this better than his wife, Ida, who devotes her days to facilitating her husband’s genius.With the news that the great American painter James McNeil Whistler – Vilhelm’s artistic idol – is putting together an exhibition in London, the couple relocate to England in the hope of winning his attention.But here things begin to change. Ida and Vilhelm learn that, on the ladder of ambition, it is possible to lose sight of each other, and themselves. And by the end of the year, a devastating betrayal will define the way the world sees Vilhelm – and Ida – forever.

In a long career that spanned the French Revolution, the rise and fall of Napoleon, and the Bourbon Restoration, Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761–1845) created innovative and daring paintings in the midst of the most turbulent times. Bringing together two dozen of Boilly’s works—the majority of which have never before been published—this handsome volume includes portraiture, scenes of seduction, and groundbreaking representations of raucous Parisian street life. A master technician with acute powers of observation and a wry sense of humor, Boilly invented the term trompe l’oeil and popularized the genre through his stunningly realistic compositions. In this first English-language publication on Boilly in more than 20 years, Francesca Whitlum-Cooper vividly brings the artist and the period he lived in to life, shedding new light on Boilly’s work and expanding our understanding of how art functioned within France’s rapidly changing political environment.Published by National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University PressExhibition Schedule:National Gallery, London(02/27/19–05/19/19)

Poussin’s scenes of bacchanalian revelry, tripping maenads and skipping nymphs are often described as ‘dancelike’ and ‘choreographed’. The artist’s dancing pictures helped him develop a new approach to painting that would become the model for the French classical tradition. Shedding the sensuous, painterly manner of his early career, Poussin carved out the crisp, relief-like approach that characterized his mature work and set the precedent for three centuries of French art, from Le Brun and David to Cézanne and Picasso. He carried lessons learned from dance into every corner of his production.This book brings together a key group of paintings and drawings by Poussin, exploring the theme of dance and dancers in his production for the first time. Focusing on the dancing pictures created in Rome in the 1620s and 1630s, essays connect Poussin’s interest in dance, his study of antiquities, and his formulation of a new classical style. Richly illustrated and engagingly written, this publication uses the prism of dance to cast Poussin in a new, fresh light.Published by National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University PressExhibition Schedule:J. Paul Getty MuseumJune 8 – August 29, 2021National Gallery, LondonOctober 9, 2021 – January 2, 2022

The second book in the “Discover” series, this illuminating study explores Liotard’s little-known The Lavergne Family Breakfast (1754), widely regarded as a pastel masterpiece  Jean-Etienne Liotard’s The Lavergne Family Breakfast, acquired by the National Gallery in 2019, is one of the Gallery’s most important eighteenth-century pictures and one of the artist’s largest and most ambitious pastel. Last exhibited in 1755, when Liotard brought the pastel from Lyon to London (an incredible feat in itself given the fragility of pastel), it has hardly been seen in public since. Exploring the pastel medium, Liotard’s itinerant career and the stories behind the objects he depicts, this catalogue puts Liotard and The Lavergne Family Breakfast in the spotlight.  Liotard was a flamboyant artist and unusually well travelled for his time, spending four formative years in Constantinople and working at the courts of Vienna, Paris and London, as well as in commercial centres such as Lyon and Amsterdam, becoming a celebrity wherever he went. This beautifully illustrated publication offers readers a fresh perspective on the eighteenth century and an accessible introduction to a particularly idiosyncratic and gifted artist  Published by National Gallery Global/Distributed by Yale University Press  Exhibition Schedule:  The National Gallery, London(November 16, 2023–March 3, 2024)

A focus on Caravaggio’s last work, The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, telling the story of an empowered female saint In early May 1610, Caravaggio finished painting The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula. Two months later, he was dead, having been disfigured in a brawl and become ill while trying to return from exile to Rome. Caravaggio is one of the most famous and instantly recognisable artists in the world. His paintings open a vivid and startlingly modern window onto the seventeenth century, while his own turbulent life story, characterised by violence, murder, exile, and untimely death, remains a source of fascination. Few paintings are better placed to tell this story than The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula. Here, violence takes place at uncomfortably close quarters as Caravaggio, whose own self portrait is included, looks on helplessly. Published by National Gallery Global Ltd/Distributed by Yale University Press