Acknowledgement is due to the following for permission to reproduce pictures in this book:
Sven Blomberg, 129, 134; City of Birmingham, 67 (bottom); City of Norwich Museums, 83; Chiddingstone Castle, 52; Euan Duff, 142 (bottom), 148; Evening Standard, 36 (bottom); Frans Hals Museum, 12; Giraudon, 50, 57, 66 (top left), 68 (bottom), 70 (bottom); Kunsthistorisches Museum, 27, 85; Mansell, 39, 60, 111, 112; Jean Mohr, 36 (top), 43 (bottom); National Film Archive, 17; National Gallery, 20, 23, 25 (bottom), 43 (top), 54, 70 (top), 74 (top), 75 (top), 87, 89, 92 (top left), 97, 100 (top), 103, 104, 105, 106, 117 (top left), 119, 120 (top left and bottom left), 1201 (top and bottom), 141, 147; National Trust (Country Life), 76; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 31; Tate Gallery, 98 (bottom), 102 (top), 122 (top right and bottom), 123 (middle right and top); Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 86; Wallace Collection, 71 (top and bottom), 72, 75, 99, 116 (top), 121 (top and bottom); Walker Art Gallery, 99 (bottom).
To be continued by the reader
A book made by
John Berger, Sven Blomberg, Chris Fox,
Michael Dibb, Richard Hollis
Note to the reader
This book has been made by five of us. Our starting point was some of the ideas contained in the television series Ways of Seeing. We have tried to extend and elaborate these ideas. They have influenced not only what we say but also how we have set about trying to say it. The form of the book is as much to do with our purpose as the arguments contained within it.
The book consists of seven numbered essays. They can be read in any order. Four of the essays use words and images, three of them use only images. These purely pictorial essays (on ways of seeing women and on various contradictory aspects of the tradition of the oil painting) are intended to raise as many questions as the verbal essays. Sometimes in the pictorial essays no information at all is given about the images reproduced because it seemed to us that such information might distract from the points being made. In all cases, however, this information can be found in the List of Works Reproduced which is printed at the end of the book.
None of the essays pretends to deal with more than certain aspects of each subject: particularly those aspects thrown into relief by a modern historical consciousness. Our principal aim has been to start a process of questioning.
List of Works Reproduced
The Key of Dreams by Ren Magritte, 18981967, private collection
Regents of the Old Mens Alms House by Frans Hals, 15801666, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem
Regentesses of the Old Mens Alms House by Frans Hals, 15801666, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem
Still Life with Wicker Chair by Picasso 1881
Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo da Vinci, 14521519, National Gallery, London
Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo da Vinci, 14521519, Louvre, Paris
The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci, 14521519, National Gallery, London
Venus and Mars by Sandro Botticelli, 14451510, National Gallery, London
The Procession to Calvary by Pieter Breughel the Elder, 152569, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
27 Wheatfield with Crows by Vincent van Gogh, 185390, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Woman Pouring Milk by Jan Vermeer, 163275, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
38 (top left) Nude by Picasso, 1881
38 (top right) Nude by Modigliani, 18841920, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London
38 (bottom left) Nevermore by Gaugin, 18481903, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London
38 (bottom right) Nude Standing Figure by Giacometti, Tate Gallery, London
Bathsheba by Rembrandt van Ryn, 160669, Louvre, Paris
Judgement of Paris by Peter Paul Rubens, 15771640, National Gallery, London
Reclining Bacchante by Felix Trutat, 182448, Muse des Beaux Arts, Dijon
The Garden of Eden; the Temptation, the Fall and the Expulsion Miniature from Les Trs Riches Heures du Duc de Berry by Pol de Limbourg and brothers, before 1416, Muse Cond, Chantilly
Adam and Eve by Jan Gossart called Mabuse, died c. 1533, Her Majesty the Queen
The Couple by Max Slevogt, 18681932,
Susannah and the Elders by Jacopo Tintoretto, 151894, Louvre, Paris
Susannah and the Elders by Jacopo Tintoretto, 151894, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Vanity by Hans Memling, 143594, Strasbourg Museum
The Judgement of Paris by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 14721553, Landesmuseum, Gotha
The Judgement of Paris by Peter Paul Rubens, 15771640, National Gallery, London
Nell Gwynne by Sir Peter Lely, 161880, Denys Bower collection, Chiddingstone Castle, Kent
53 Mochica Pottery depicting sexual intercourse Photograph by Shippee-Johnson, Lima, Peru
53 Rajasthan, 18th century, Ajit Mookerjee, New Delhi
53 Vishnu and Lakshmi, 11th century, Parsavanatha Temple, Khajuraho
Venus, Cupid, Time and Love by Agnolo Bronzino, 150372, National Gallery, London
La Grande Odalisque by J. A. D. Ingres, 17801867, Louvre, Paris (detail)
Bacchus, Ceres and Cupid by Hans von Aachen, 15521615, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Les Orades by William Bouguereau, 18251905, private collection
58 Dane by Rembrandt van Ryn, 160669, Hermitage, Leningrad (detail)
Hlne Fourment in a Fur Coat by Peter Paul Rubens, 15771640, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Man Drawing Reclining Woman by Albrecht Drer, 14711528
Woodcut from Four Books on the Human Proportions by Albrecht Drer, 14711528
The Venus of Urbino by Titian, 1487/901576, Uffizi, Florence
Olympia by Edouard Manet, 183283, Louvre, Paris
(top left) Virgin Enthroned by Cimabu, Louvre, Paris, c. 12401302?
66 (top right) Virgin, Child and Four Angels by Piero della Francesca, 1410/2092, Williamston, Clark Art Institute
66 (bottom left) Madonna and Child by Fra Filippo Lippi, 1457/81504
66 (bottom right) The Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Gerard David, d. 1523, National Gallery of Art Washington, Mellon Collection
(top left) The Sistine Madonna by Raphael, 14831520, Uffizi, Florence
67 (top right) Virgin and Child by Murillo, 161782, Pitti Palace, Florence
(bottom) The Pretty Baa Lambs by Ford Madox Brown, 182193, Birmingham City Museum
(top) Death of St Francis by Giotto, 1266/71337, Sta Croce, Florence
(bottom) detail of Triumph of Death by Pieter Brueghel, 1525/3069, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
(top left) Guillotined Heads by Thodore Gericault, 17911824, National Museum, Stockholm
69 (top right) Three Ages of Woman by Hans Baldung Grien, 14831545, Prado, Madrid
(bottom) Dead Toreador by Edouard Manet, 183283
(top) Still Life by Pierre Chardin, 16991779, National Gallery, London
70 (bottom) Still Life by Francisco Goya, 17461828, Louvre, Paris
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