Hornel: The Life and Work of Edward Atkinson Hornel Hardcover – Illustrated, 1 Dec. 2010

The book is printed on I think the thickest gloss paper I've known in an art book. This makes it a bit of a nuisance turning the pages, which is a bit of an issue when most of the plates are not near the relevant text. The plates are disappointing; the one on the cover is misleading. Inside the plates have large white borders around them, and so they are rather small and the colour reproduction often doesn't look that good. As an example one 'plate' is a reproduction of an article from a magazine, and that is larger than most of the paintings. The writing style is a bit boring - Bill Smith writes more like a local historian than an art expert. By the end I don't feel like I know very much about Hornel the man, he still seems distant. Smith has a bit of a limited vocabulary - I didn't count but if I had a £ for every time he used the word 'broad' or 'broadly' (in regard to paint) I'd probably have enough money to buy 4 or 5 copies of this book. I believe this book also came out before Hornel's archive of photographs was discovered. There is another book which concentrates on the photography and how it was used to create the paintings, maybe I should have bought that one.

Expected more full-page reproductions. Too much text in relation to pictures. Beautifully presented book however, and reasonable value for money.

As an artist myself any book on painting is a source of great interest. This detailed view of Hornel, his life, his paintings, his relationships with friends and the overview of his artistic development is fascinating. This is a very good book.

An excellent introduction and overview of Hornel's life and work