The National Gallery Companion Guide Erika Langmuir

The "Companion Guide" introduces art lovers to one of the richest and most representative collections of Western European paintings in the world, including famous works by the greatest painters - Piero della Francesca, Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, Velazquez, Ingres, Degas and many others - and masterpieces by less familiar artists. Through her commentaries on over 200 of the National Gallery's finest works of art, Erika Langmuir enables the reader to trace the history of European painting from the thirteenth to the twentieth century, to develop an eye for style, technique, imagery and genre, and to appreciate the talents of individual artists producing paintings for different locations and patrons, in a variety of artistic and cultural contexts. The "Companion Guide" has sold over 200,000 copies world wide since it was first published in 1994. This edition of the National Gallery's best-selling publication has a new cover, while new origination of all illustrations ensures high quality reproductions.

Erika Langmuir OBE was Head of Education at the National Gallery from 1988 to 1995. She is the author of several titles in the successful National Gallery Pocket Guides series and the guidebook Masterpieces from the National Gallery. She was a co-author of The Yale Dictionary of Art and Artists, and wrote Imagining Childhood (Yale University Press).

"'Erika Langmuir has the rare knack of coming at pictures both with spontaneous eyes and with great erudition lightly worn.' Neil MacGregor, Director, The British Museum"