Sarah Whitfield – författare

René Magritte (1898–1967) was a surrealist artist whose thought-provoking works used ordinary objects to challenge how viewers perceived reality. His extensive oeuvre was documented in a comprehensive five-volume project, led by distinguished art critic and writer David Sylvester. In the years that followed the publication of the final volume in 1997, numerous works purporting to be by Magritte appeared on the art market. Under the auspices of the Fondation Magritte, a committee was established to verify the authenticity of newly discovered works as well as those previously recorded as "whereabouts unknown" or listed as appendix items in the original volumes of the René Magritte Catalogue Raisonné.René Magritte: Newly Discovered Works includes color illustrations of 130 previously unpublished or unknown works authenticated by the committee between September 2000 and March 2010. Like its predecessors, this volume is the culmination of years of research, which synthesizes new discoveries about the artworks and details of the life of Magritte himself. Accompanying text and comparative documentation provide a wealth of complementary information, including the circumstances of a work's discovery, references to letters, quotations in their original languages, and citations from previous volumes.Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Les Fauves (the wild beasts) was the nickname given in 1905 to a group of painters led by Henri Matisse. Today, their paintings are among the most popular of all twentieth-century art. Yet when Matisse and his friends - Derain, Vlaminck, Marquet, Dufy and Braque among them - first exhibited their work, the reaction of public and critics was astonishment and often hostility. Using strong, even strident, colours, applied in a manner deriving from Cézanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh, the Fauves took painting back to its basic principles, inspired by primitive art, popular prints and children's paintings, and paved the way to Cubism. The artists, their work, their relationship, their achievements and the critical and commercial response to their work are all discussed in this absorbing book.

Over the course of his career, William Scott painted more than 1,000 works in oil, all of which are catalogued in this four-volume publication, which covers the artist’s output from 1928 to 1986. Each work is accompanied by a catalogue note giving reasons for the dating together with any documentary material relevant to its history, much of it published here for the first time. An enormous amount of new information has been unearthed during the six years of research that has gone into this important project, research that not only reveals a great deal more than was previously known about the artist’s life and work but also about how both these aspects of his career had a bearing on the wider context of contemporary British art. The artist’s own papers and many previously unpublished letters and lecture notes have been made available by his family especially for this project. This landmark work will provide scholars and collectors with a vital tool for further research, and all lovers of Scott’s art with a source of inspiration and insight.

"One more dawn! One more day! One day more!"Did Les Misérables make you miserable? Or did it inspire you? When Sarah Whitfield was a teenager, her Dad frequently embarrassed her with his love of this musical above all others. So, after he was diagnosed with late stage cancer, Whitfield set out to find out why this musical meant so much to him and to its worldwide following.In this new book, she asked her Dad and 350 other people how they felt about this musical, exploring people’s personal connections with the show. In the middle of some of the hardest moments in family life, Whitfield explores how the musical might help us deal with some of our most difficult experiences and give us hope for when ‘tomorrow comes’.

Pierre Bonnard was a leading figure in the transition from Impressionism to Modernism. Across his rich and varied oeuvre, he returned frequently to self-portraits, of which this 1939 example is a key late work. In its depiction of an intimate and enclosed world, the painting creates a powerful emotional impact, standing as one of the most sensitive and deeply affecting self-portraits of its time. This volume contains newly commissioned essays by Isabelle Cahn of the Musée d’Orsay, who curated the exhibition Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi, a collaboration between the Musée d’Orsay and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne in 2023, and Sarah Whitfield, who in 1998 organised a major retrospective of Pierre Bonnard at London's Tate Gallery and the New York Museum of Modern Art, featuring loans from numerous public and private collections.