John Berger - Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series

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

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.

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