{"title":"Books by Sam Smiles","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781913107161","title":"The Late Works of J. M. W. Turner – The Artist and his Critics","description":"An exploration of Turner's final, vital years, including new readings of some of his most significant paintings The paintings and drawings Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) produced from 1835 to his death in 1851 are seen by many as his most audacious and compelling work, a typical example of \"late style.\" In this study, Sam Smiles goes beyond late style, with its focus on formal qualities and assumptions about personal expression, as an explanatory framework for Turner's late works. Instead, he argues that Turner, in his final fifteen years, was an artist entirely engaged with his own times.      Smiles examines the artist's critical reception in these years and scrutinizes accounts that presumed Turner's physical and mental health collapsed in his seventies, to see what can be reliably said about his work as he aged. Emerging from this study is an artist who used his final years to consolidate the principles that had motivated him throughout his career.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308694876533,"sku":"9781913107161","price":35.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781913107161_9f6dff5d-9d78-4e2b-b35a-0a017b66e804.jpg?v=1786030982"},{"product_id":"9781911300144","title":"British Art: Ancient Landscapes","description":"are much less well known and have never been grouped together.   The author aims to show the significance of antiquity for 20th-century artists, demonstrating how they responded to the observable features of prehistoric Britain and exploited their potential for imaginative re-interpretation. The classic phase of modernist interest in these sites and monuments was the 1930s, but a number of artists working after WWII developed this legacy or were stimulated to explore that landscape in new ways. Indeed, it continues to stimulate responses and the book concludes with an examination of works made within the last few years.  An introductory essay looks at the changing artistic approach to British prehistoric remains over the last 250 years, emphasizing the artistic significance of this body of work and examining the very different contexts that brought it into being. The cultural intersections between the prehistoric landscape, its representation by fine artists and the emergence of its most famous sites as familiar locations in public consciousness will also be examined. For example, engraved topographical illustrations from the 18th and 19th centuries and Shell advertising posters from the 20th century will be considered.  Artists represented include: JMW Turner, John Constable, Thomas Hearne, William Blake, Samuel Prout, William Geller, Richard Tongue, Thomas Guest, John William Inchbold, George Shepherd, William Andrews Nesfield, Copley Fielding, Yoshijiro (Mokuchu) Urushibara, Alan Sorrell, Edward McKnight Kauffer, Frank Dobson, Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious, John Piper, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ithell Colquhoun, Gertrude Hermes, Norman Stevens, Norman Ackroyd, Bill Brandt, Derek Jarman, Richard Long, Joe Tilson, David Inshaw and Jeremy Deller.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56313139167605,"sku":"9781911300144","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781911300144_b3e0ef53-2fa0-46d6-a384-f832bcf12999.jpg?v=1786029365"},{"product_id":"9781913107512","title":"Turner and the Slave Trade","description":"Exploring Turner’s evolving response to slavery, from his investment in enslaved labour to his later denunciation in The Slave Ship   While J. M. W. Turner’s iconic painting The Slave Ship (1840) is celebrated as a powerful criticism of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people, his personal and professional ties to slavery tell a more nuanced story. This book provides the first detailed analysis of Turner’s evolving responses to slavery over his lifetime, from his financial investment in a Jamaican property worked by enslaved labourers to his later denunciation of the trade in his art.      Drawing on extensive archival research, Turner and the Slave Trade traces the artist’s interactions with patrons tied to the plantation economy and examines the impact of abolitionist discourse on his work. Key chapters investigate The Slave Ship, its inspiration, and its contested interpretations while situating Turner within broader debates about art, slavery, and shifting public sentiment.      Offering a nuanced understanding of how art engages with history’s most urgent issues, this important new study presents Turner as an exceptional yet complex figure, whose legacy is intertwined with the institution of slavery and its eventual abolition.      Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368235577717,"sku":"9781913107512","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781913107512.jpg?v=1791212905"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-sam-smiles.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}