{"title":"Laura Cumming","description":"\u003cp\u003eExplore the insightful world of Laura Cumming, the acclaimed art critic and author. Delve into her captivating explorations of art history, photography, and the human condition. A must-read for art enthusiasts.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"on-chapel-sands-book-laura-cumming-9781784742478","title":"On Chapel Sands","description":"**Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award 2019**  **SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**  'A modern masterpiece' Guardian  Uncovering the mystery of her mother’s disappearance as a child: Laura Cumming, prize-winning author and art critic, takes a closer look at her family story.  In the autumn of 1929, a small child was kidnapped from a Lincolnshire beach. Five agonising days went by before she was found in a nearby village. The child remembered nothing of these events and nobody ever spoke of them at home. It was another fifty years before she even learned of the kidnap.  The girl became an artist and had a daughter, art writer Laura Cumming. Cumming grew up enthralled by her mother’s strange tales of life in a seaside hamlet of the 1930s, and of the secrets and lies perpetuated by a whole community. So many puzzles remained to be solved. Cumming began with a few criss-crossing lives in this fraction of English coast – the postman, the grocer, the elusive baker – but soon her search spread right out across the globe as she discovered just how many lives were affected by what happened that day on the beach – including her own.   On Chapel Sands is a book of mystery and memoir. Two narratives run through it: the mother’s childhood tale; and Cumming’s own pursuit of the truth. Humble objects light up the story: a pie dish, a carved box, an old Vick’s jar. Letters, tickets, recipe books, even the particular slant of a copperplate hand give vital clues. And pictures of all kinds, from paintings to photographs, open up like doors to the truth. Above all, Cumming discovers how to look more closely at the family album – with its curious gaps and missing persons – finding crucial answers, captured in plain sight at the click of a shutter.  'A moving, many-sided human story of great depth and tenderness, and a revelation of how art enriches life' Sunday Times","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49504308232465,"sku":"GOR009884592","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49540733337873,"sku":"GOR010163390","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49646163493137,"sku":"GOR010617466","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50391400382737,"sku":"CIN1784742473A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50391401496849,"sku":"CIN1784742473G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50914471870737,"sku":"GOR010117497","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1784742473.jpg?v=1751091083"},{"product_id":"on-chapel-sands-book-laura-cumming-9781784708634","title":"On Chapel Sands","description":"**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** **SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD**  Uncovering the mystery of her mother's disappearance as a child: Laura Cumming, prize-winning author and art critic, takes a closer look at her family story.  'A modern masterpiece' Guardian  Autumn 1929 - a young girl is kidnapped from a beach. Five agonising days go by before she is discovered safe and well in a nearby village. The child remembers nothing of these events and at home, nobody ever speaks of them again.  Decades later, Laura Cumming delves into the mystery surrounding her mother's disappearance. Examining everything from old family photos to letters, tickets and recipes, she uncovers a series of secrets and lies perpetuated not just by her family but by the whole community and in doing so unlocks a mystery almost a century old.  'A moving, many-sided human story of great depth and tenderness, and a revelation of how art enriches life' Sunday Times  Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize Longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49505512030481,"sku":"GOR010502627","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49523542491409,"sku":"GOR010593372","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49645991231761,"sku":"GOR010624868","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49737575170321,"sku":"NGR9781784708634","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49950377083153,"sku":"GOR010528692","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50391229858065,"sku":"CIN1784708631A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50400871579921,"sku":"CIN1784708631VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52107371053329,"sku":"CIN1784708631G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52428266111249,"sku":"NLS9781784708634","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1784708631.jpg?v=1767356022"},{"product_id":"sterling-stuff-ii-seventy-sculptures-in-silver-book-laura-cumming-9780956049117","title":"Sterling Stuff II: Seventy Sculptures in Silver","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49505860813073,"sku":"GOR003105750","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0956049117.jpg?v=1751109231"},{"product_id":"on-chapel-sands-book-laura-cumming-9781501198724","title":"On Chapel Sands","description":"\u003cb\u003eNOMINATED FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHY\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NONFICTION\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe acclaimed \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Vanishing Velazquez\u003c\/i\u003e shares a riveting true story \"with as many twists and turns as any mystery\" (\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e) describing her mother's mysterious kidnapping as a toddler in a small English coastal village--\"an incredible and incredibly unusual book about family secrets\" (Nick Hornby, \u003ci\u003eThe Believer\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In the fall of 1929, when Laura Cumming's mother was three years old, she was kidnapped from a beach on the Lincolnshire coast of England. There were no screams when she was taken, suggesting the culprit was someone familiar to her, and when she turned up again in a nearby village several days later, she was happy and in perfect health. No one was ever accused of a crime. The incident quickly faded from her memory, and her parents never discussed it. To the contrary, they deliberately hid it from her, and she did not learn of it for half a century.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e This was not the only secret her parents kept from her. For many years, while raising her in draconian isolation and protectiveness, they also hid the fact that she'd been adopted, and that shortly after the kidnapping, her name was changed from Grace to Betty.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Both page-turning and richly absorbing\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Providence Journal\u003c\/i\u003e), \u003ci\u003eOn Chapel Sands\u003c\/i\u003e (originally titled \u003ci\u003eFive Days Gone\u003c\/i\u003e) unspools the tale of Cumming's mother's life and unravels the multiple mysteries at its core. Using photographs from the time, historical documents, and works of art, Cumming investigates this case of stolen identity w​ith the toolset of a detective and the unique intimacy of a daughter trying to understand her family's past and its legacies. \"Brilliant\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e) and \"a story told with such depth of feeling and observation and such lyrical writing I couldn't put it down\" (Anna Quindlen), \u003ci\u003eOn Chapel Sands\u003c\/i\u003e is a masterful blend of memoir and history, an extraordinary personal narrative unlike any other.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49511608418577,"sku":"GOR012005228","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49547107336465,"sku":"GOR013466651","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50152237695249,"sku":"CIN1501198726VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50385794990353,"sku":"CIN1501198726A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50385797415185,"sku":"CIN1501198726G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1501198726.jpg?v=1751406221"},{"product_id":"vanishing-man-book-laura-cumming-9780701188443","title":"The Vanishing Man","description":"*BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week*  \"The Vanishing Man is a riveting detective story and a brilliant reconstruction of an art controversy, but it is also a homage to the art of Velázquez, written by a critic who remains spellbound by his genius, as readers will be spellbound by this book\" - Colm Tóibín  In 1845, a Reading bookseller named John Snare came across the dirt-blackened portrait of a prince at a country house auction.  Suspecting that it might be a long-lost Velázquez, he bought the picture and set out to discover its strange history. When Laura Cumming stumbled on a startling trial involving John Snare, it sent her on a search of her own. At first she was pursuing the picture, and the life and work of the elusive painter, but then she found herself following the bookseller’s fortunes too – from London to Edinburgh to nineteenth-century New York, from fame to ruin and exile.  An innovative fusion of detection and biography, this book shows how and why great works of art can affect us, even to the point of mania. And on the trail of John Snare, Cumming makes a surprising discovery of her own. But most movingly, The Vanishing Man is an eloquent and passionate homage to the Spanish master Velázquez, bringing us closer to the creation and appreciation of his works than ever before.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49518085734673,"sku":"GOR008025248","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49550259552529,"sku":"GOR007214995","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49557214691601,"sku":"GOR008679877","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49632723960081,"sku":"GOR012676359","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0701188448.jpg?v=1751262617"},{"product_id":"vanishing-man-book-laura-cumming-9780099587040","title":"The Vanishing Man","description":"WINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK BIOGRAPHY PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION  Selected as a Book of the Year in the Herald   In 1845, a Reading bookseller named John Snare came across the dirt-blackened portrait of a prince at a country house auction.  Suspecting that it might be a long-lost Velázquez, he bought the picture and set out to discover its strange history - a quest that led from fame to ruin and exile.  Fusing detection and biography, this book shows how and why great works of art can affect us, even to the point of mania. And on the trail of John Snare, Cumming makes a surprising discovery of her own. But most movingly, The Vanishing Man is an eloquent and passionate homage to the Spanish master Velázquez, bringing us closer to the creation and appreciation of his works than ever before.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49534183211281,"sku":"GOR008035167","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49562711654673,"sku":"GOR008202440","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49602984706321,"sku":"GOR010121154","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49727823675665,"sku":"NGR9780099587040","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50215441924369,"sku":"GOR007994673","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52488633254161,"sku":"NLS9780099587040","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0099587041.jpg?v=1751355863"},{"product_id":"thunderclap-book-laura-cumming-9781784744526","title":"Thunderclap","description":"**WINNER OF THE WRITERS' PRIZE (NON-FICTION CATEGORY)** **SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024**  'A wonderful read (or a great present) for anyone who loves stories and art' Nina Stibbe, author of Love, Nina  A beautifully illustrated new memoir of a life in art, a father and daughter, and what a shared love of a painting can come to mean.  'We see with everything that we are'  On the morning of 12 October 1654, a gunpowder explosion devastated the Dutch city of Delft. The thunderclap was heard over seventy miles away. Among the fatalities was the painter Carel Fabritius, dead at thirty-two, leaving only his haunting masterpiece The Goldfinch and barely a dozen known paintings. The explosion that killed him also buried his reputation, along with answers to the mysteries of his life and career.  What happened to Fabritius before and after this disaster is just one of the discoveries in a book that explores the relationship between art and life, interweaving the lives of Laura Cumming, her Scottish painter father, who also died too young, and the great artists of the Dutch Golden Age.  This is a book about what a picture may come to mean: how it can enter your life and change your thinking in a thunderclap.  **A SUNDAY TIMES, DAILY EXPRESS AND GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023**  'Brilliant ... rush out and buy it' Edmund de Waal, bestselling author of The Hare with Amber Eyes","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49535137579281,"sku":"GOR013181722","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49744857727249,"sku":"NGR9781784744526","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50445651575057,"sku":"GOR013288753","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50679324213521,"sku":"GOR014032139","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51462948913425,"sku":"GOR014289698","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52673136296209,"sku":"NLS9781784744526","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1784744522.jpg?v=1750962922"},{"product_id":"face-to-the-world-book-laura-cumming-9780007118441","title":"A Face to the World","description":"Focusing on the art of self-portraiture, this effortlessly engaging exploration of the lives of artists sheds fascinating light on some of the most extraordinary portraits in art history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49535874007313,"sku":"GOR005306365","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50927473787153,"sku":"GOR006640798","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51320593645841,"sku":"NGR9780007118441","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51332746281233,"sku":"CIN0007118449G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52602055360785,"sku":"CIN0007118449VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0007118449.jpg?v=1751428727"},{"product_id":"vanishing-velazquez-book-laura-cumming-9781476762180","title":"The Vanishing Velazquez","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eBESTSELLER\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e Top 10 Nonfiction Book of 2016\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"As compelling and entertaining as a detective novel\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/i\u003e), the incredible true story--part art history and part mystery--of a Velázquez portrait that went missing and the obsessed nineteenth-century bookseller determined to prove he had found it.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e When John Snare, a nineteenth century provincial bookseller, traveled to a liquidation auction, he found a vivid portrait of King Charles I that defied any explanation. The Charles of the painting was young--too young to be king--and yet also too young to be painted by the Flemish painter to whom the piece was attributed. Snare had found something incredible--but what?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e His research brought him to Diego Velázquez, whose long-lost portrait of Prince Charles has eluded art experts for generations. Velázquez (1599-1660) was the official painter of the Madrid court, during the time the Spanish Empire teetered on the edge of collapse. When Prince Charles of England--a man wealthy enough to help turn Spain's fortunes--proposed a marriage with a Spanish princess, he allowed just a few hours to sit for his portrait, and Snare believed only Velázquez could have been the artist of choice. But in making his theory public, Snare was ostracized and forced to choose, like Velázquez himself, between art and family.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A thrilling investigation into the complex meaning of authenticity and the unshakable determination that drives both artists and collectors of their work, \u003ci\u003eThe Vanishing Vel\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eázquez\u003c\/i\u003e is a \"brilliant\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e) tale of mystery and detection, of tragic mishaps and mistaken identities, of class, politics, snobbery, crime, and almost farcical accident that reveals how one historic masterpiece was crafted and lost, and how far one man would go to redeem it. Laura Cumming's book is \"sumptuous...A gleaming work of someone at the peak of her craft\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49544738308369,"sku":"GOR009465615","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49951567937809,"sku":"CIN147676218XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50138829324561,"sku":"GOR010367704","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50288727654673,"sku":"CIN147676218XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53182851186961,"sku":"NIN9781476762180","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/147676218X.jpg?v=1772636482"},{"product_id":"five-days-gone-book-laura-cumming-9781501198717","title":"Five Days Gone","description":"\u003cb\u003eNOMINATED FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eINTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eAcclaimed \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Vanishing Velazquez\u003c\/i\u003e Laura Cumming shares the riveting story of her mother's mysterious kidnapping as a toddler in a small English coastal village--and how that event reverberated through her own family and her art for decades.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In the fall of 1929, when Laura Cumming's mother was three years old, she was kidnapped from a beach on the Lincolnshire coast of England. There were no screams when she was taken, suggesting the culprit was someone familiar to her, and when she turned up again in a nearby village several days later, she was found in perfect health and happiness. No one was ever accused of a crime. The incident quickly faded from her memory, and her parents never discussed it. To the contrary, they deliberately hid it from her, and she did not learn of it for half a century.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e This was not the only secret her parents kept from her. For many years, while raising her in draconian isolation and protectiveness, they also hid the fact that she'd been adopted, and that shortly after the kidnapping, her name was changed from Grace to Betty.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eFive Days Gone,\u003c\/i\u003e Laura Cumming brilliantly unspools the tale of her mother's life and unravels the multiple mysteries at its core. Using photographs from the time, historical documents, and works of art, Cumming investigates this case of stolen identity with the toolset of a detective and the unique intimacy of a daughter trying to understand her family's past and its legacies. Compulsive, vivid, and profoundly touching, \u003ci\u003eFive Days Gone\u003c\/i\u003e is a masterful blend of memoir and history, an extraordinary personal narrative unlike any other.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49550531068177,"sku":"GOR010867466","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49556706361617,"sku":"GOR013740472","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49864401486097,"sku":"CIN1501198718VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49918033821969,"sku":"CIN1501198718G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53625499549969,"sku":"GOR014986709","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1501198718.jpg?v=1751211069"},{"product_id":"face-to-the-world-book-laura-cumming-9780007118434","title":"A Face to the World","description":"Focusing on the art of self-portraiture, this effortlessly engaging exploration of the lives of artists sheds fascinating light on some of the most extraordinary portraits in art history.             Self-portraits catch your eye. They seem to do it deliberately. Walk into any art gallery and they draw attention to themselves. Come across them in the world’s museums and you get a strange shock of recognition, rather like glimpsing your own reflection. For in picturing themselves artists reveal something far deeper than their own physical looks: the truth about how they hope to be viewed by the world, and how they wish to see themselves.             In this beautifully written and lavishly illustrated book, Laura Cumming, art critic of the Observer, investigates the drama of the self-portrait, from Durer, Rembrandt and Velazquez to Munch, Picasso, Warhol and the present day. She considers how and why self-portraits look as they do and what they reveal about the artist’s innermost sense of self – as well as the curious ways in which they may imitate our behaviour in real life.             Drawing on art, literature, history, philosophy and biography to examine the creative process in an entirely fresh way, Cumming offers a riveting insight into the intimate truths and elaborate fictions of self-portraiture and the lives of those who practise it. A work of remarkable depth, scope and power, this is a book for anyone who has ever wondered about the strange dichotomy between the innermost self and the self we choose to present for posterity – our face to the world.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49580582502673,"sku":"GOR002339291","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50249621635345,"sku":"GOR008276493","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50342014517521,"sku":"CIN0007118430G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52854217867537,"sku":"GOR006260135","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0007118430.jpg?v=1751194533"},{"product_id":"thunderclap-book-laura-cumming-9781529922530","title":"Thunderclap","description":"**WINNER OF THE SALTIRE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2024** **WINNER OF THE WRITERS' PRIZE 2024 | NON-FICTION** **SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024**   A beautifully illustrated new memoir of a life in art, a father and daughter, and what a shared love of a painting can come to mean.  ‘Brilliant’ Edmund de Waal * ‘Captivating’ Nina Stibbe * 'Extraordinary' India Knight  On the morning of 12 October 1654, a gunpowder explosion devastated the Dutch city of Delft. Among the fatalities was the painter Carel Fabritius, dead at thirty-two, leaving behind his haunting masterpiece The Goldfinch.  Thunderclap explores what happened to Fabritius before and after the disaster whilst interweaving the lives of Laura Cumming, her painter father and the great artists of the Dutch Golden Age. It takes the reader from seventeenth-century Delft to twentieth-century Scottish islands, from Rembrandt’s studio to wartime America and contemporary London. This is a book about what a picture may come to mean, how it can enter your life and change your thinking in a thunderclap.  ‘Superb…this book taught me to see anew’ Daily Telegraph  ‘A book that often borders on the sublime in its sentiment and beauty’ Sunday Times","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49747147194641,"sku":"NGR9781529922530","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49887430836497,"sku":"GOR013738081","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49959517061393,"sku":"GOR013738560","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50793226797329,"sku":"GOR014074534","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50961627906321,"sku":"GOR014148617","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52120273420561,"sku":"NLS9781529922530","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1529922534.jpg?v=1751433164"},{"product_id":"thunderclap-book-laura-cumming-9781982181741","title":"Thunderclap","description":"\u003cb\u003eNamed a Top 100 Must-Read Book of the Year by \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e and a Best Book of the Year by \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker *\u003c\/i\u003e Winner of the 2024 Writers\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003ePrize for Nonfiction * Shortlisted for the Inaugural Women's Prize for Nonfiction * Longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author Laura Cumming \"combines first-rate art history with deeply felt memoir\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e) in this fascinating, little-known story of the massive explosion in Holland that killed Carel Fabritius, renowned painter of \u003ci\u003eThe Goldfinch\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA View of Delft\u003c\/i\u003e and nearly killed Johannes Vermeer--two of the greatest artists of the 17th century.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"Exquisite.\" --Simon Schama, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e As a brilliant art critic and historian, Laura Cumming has explored the importance of art in life and can give us a perspective on the time and place in which the artist worked. 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The Charles of the painting was young--too young to be king--and yet also too young to be painted by the Flemish painter to which the work was attributed. Snare had found something incredible--but what? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e His research brought him to Diego Velazquez, whose long-lost portrait of Prince Charles has eluded art experts for generations. Velazquez (1599-1660) was the official painter of the Madrid court, during the time the Spanish Empire teetered on the edge of collapse. When Prince Charles of England--a man wealthy enough to help turn Spain's fortunes--ventured to the court to propose a marriage with a Spanish princess, he allowed just a few hours to sit for his portrait. Snare believed only Velazquez could have met this challenge. But in making his theory public, Snare was ostracized, victim to aristocrats and critics who accused him of fraud, and forced to choose, like Velazquez himself, between art and family. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e A thrilling investigation into the complex meaning of authenticity and the unshakable determination that drives both artists and collectors of their work, \u003ci\u003eThe Vanishing Velazquez\u003c\/i\u003e travels from extravagant Spanish courts in the 1700s to the gritty courtrooms and auction houses of nineteenth-century London and New York. But it is above all a tale of mystery and detection, of tragic mishaps and mistaken identities, of class, politics, snobbery, crime, and almost farcical accident. 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There were no screams when she was taken, suggesting the culprit was someone familiar to her, and when she turned up again in a nearby village several days later, she was happy and in perfect health. No one was ever accused of a crime. The incident quickly faded from her memory, and her parents never discussed it. To the contrary, they deliberately hid it from her, and she did not learn of it for half a century. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis was not the only secret her parents kept from her. 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