Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1851891 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

Customer Reviews

A RARE BOOK...FOR THE SERIOUS ARTIST
The book Still Lifes: Techniques and Style : An Examination of Paintings from the Rijksmuseum is a fabulous book. As a professional artist who is a serious still life painter, this book answers many questions on techniques used. If you understand the techniques and principles of this style of painting, you will have to have this book in your personal library. A must have for the serious still life painter.

William Yenkevich at www.wmystudio.com

Great book
This is one of my favourite books, although the title is a bit misleading. I saw the word 'techniques' in the title and thought 'hey great - a book that's going to give me some of the techniques of the old dutch masters'. Hmmmm. All I can say is; if you thought that as well, don't get your hopes too high.
This is a great book - beautiful illustrations (although only 17 paintings are covered so it's not an extensive collection of works), clear text and nicely presented. However it strikes me as being written more from the perspective of an art curator or researcher then an artist (like so many art books written these days on the 'greats' of the past). Thus it misses out on a lot of information that would be of interest to the painter and gives very few actual 'how to' details. To me too, the majority of the technical information seems to be stating what can already be seen in the close ups, or revolving around scientific analysis of pigment samples. The dead colouring, whether a portion of the painting was done wet in wet or in layers and what pigments were used, seems to be the only technical information really covered.
However this is still a great book - I totally recommend it. Overall, it has to be the most helpful still life painting book I own to date,(mostly because of the closeups and the quality of the paintings). So I would say, get it if you love old masters still lifes, it's worth it.

Still life paintings from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
This beautiful book is an intensive and visually enchanting examination of nineteen flower and still life masterpieces from museums around the world. This book was written in conjuction with the show presented at the Rijksmuseum, June through September of l999. Art lovers, artists, scholars, conservators and laymen will enjoy this journey back to the seventeenth and eighteen-century workshops of such artistic giants as Jan Brueghel, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Rachel Ruysch, Jan Van Huysum and more. Historical backgrounds of fifteen painters are featured along with technical information on supports (canvas, wood or copper), imprimaturas, under drawings, mediums, and paints. Beautiful color plates, artistic techniques, and scientific knowledge are shared.

Paintings by Jan van Huysum are examined through mmicroscopic analysis, made possible by the Molart Project. Such scientific examination tells us the chemical and physical condition of Huysum's paintings, and the methods he used to paint his beautiful still lifes. Such scientific examinations offers us a great amount of information that can be applied to artistic instruction, preservation or just good reading.