Sandra Forty: 16 books

The greatest artist of the 18th century, Francisco de Goya began his career as an apprentice to a local artist where one of his jobs was adding draperies and modesty items to nude figures in religious paintings; for this he was titled “Reviser of Indecent Paintings.” But by the age of 40, Goya...

Rembrandt is indisputably the greatest artist of the seventeenth century, and many would say the greatest artist of all time. His mastery of composition, paint, and line—he was a superlative etcher—over a lifetime’s work has rarely been emulated, let alone surpassed. At a time when other artists...

Many art historians consider Edouard Manet to be the father of modern art. Although often cited alongside the Impressionists, he was not a member of their group and never exhibited in their Salon des Réfusées. Instead, he pioneered a path between realism and impressionism, choosing contemporary...

Michelangelo is considered by many art experts to be the greatest Renaissance artist, surpassing even Leonardo da Vinci. Not only was he an exceptional sculptor but also a formidable painter, architect, and poet. Michelangelo’s primary material was marble and the results of his talent and work speak...

Painter of languid, elegant, Edwardian beauties and sharply dressed gentlemen, John Singer Sargent was the ultimate society painter. He knew everyone who was anyone and was on personal terms with many of them, including Edward VII and the U.S. presidents Roosevelt and Wilson. This social standing...

Gauguin’s paintings are redolent of the South Sea islands, full of exotic women, vibrant flora, and brilliant color. In addition, his scenes range from normal life in France’s Brittany, to Provence where he painted and lived briefly with Vincent van Gogh, to French Polynesia. Eugène Henri Paul...

Georges Seurat was one of the most important Post-Impressionist painters to lead the way toward the modern era in art. He is best known for developing pointillism, an exacting and time-consuming technique whereby tiny dots of paint are combined to create a composition. His work is stylized and considered,...

The Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel—sometimes called Peasant Bruegel—was the first great artist to paint scenes of ordinary peasant life and show the common man and woman as they went about their daily tasks and amusements. He is credited with bringing a humanizing spirit to painting— something...

Hans Memling was one of the greatest artists working in northern Europe in the late medieval period. He made his home and his name in the city of Bruges, Belgium, where he lived and worked for almost 30 years. Often described as a Flemish Primitive, he almost singlehandedly transformed Bruges into...

Edgar Degas began as a classical painter of genre history scenes and died as one of the greatest and most innovative names in French art—although as with so many other artists, he did not receive a great deal of recognition in his lifetime. Along the way his style changed completely from strict...

Ando Hiroshige is considered by many as the last of the great creative masters of the traditional Japanese woodblock print. His skill has won him worldwide fame and artistic influence, along with his contemporary, Katsushika Hokusai. Both artists widened the range of subjects they covered to encompass...

Although American by birth and heritage, James McNeill Whistler spent most of his life in western Europe, particularly in Paris and London, where he lived his life in a swirl of controversy over his art and his often self-aggrandizing behavior, which tainted his associations with fellow artists and...

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was, above all, a painter of people, especially young women and rosy-cheeked children. In many ways, he is the most approachable Impressionist. Not for him were the grim realities of a hard life. Renoir painted people enjoying themselves: talking, flirting, laughing, often dancing,...

Comics entered their “golden age” in 1938 when a new idea revolutionized the industry: the creation of the first and archetypal superhero. Superman, pioneered by Detective Comics, better known as DC, was quickly followed by Batman, another brainchild of DC, in 1939. An explosion of acrobatic superheroes,...