Seven Discourses on Art

I bought this book to better understand 17th and 18th Century British landscape painting and the works of Gainsborough, Turner and Constable. This is an invaluable source and although a bit dry to read, its not hard to image the great Sir Joshua standing before his pupils and imparting his wonderful knowledge of art. Much more than the simple mechanics and simplying copying great art to find how a painting was executed, it is about how to think and imagine how you feel and interprete the emotions the artist was trying to capture and portray. A brilliant teacher, Sir Joshua promoted that each work decribe the underlining concept of Nature and to fully grasp the fundamentals of art with patience and good bit of stamina. To achieve perfection, it was going to take years of hard work and no easy or quick way to become a great painter. To him and the Royal Academy, we owe much for the great artists they produced and the legacy of the most beautiful works ever created.

This book is the definitive book on the thought behind Art. It states the thought procces, and the Art and Science dualisum of the last 600 years and the reasons behind it all. If you want to be a real artist, this is the way to go. It speaks of truth and genius. "The natural appetite or tast of the human mind is for Truth""Art is a point of view, Genius a way of seeing."If the artist can grasp the truths in this book they will recieve the keys to the kingdom!