Raro esemplare della prima edizione della Wellfleet Press (Quarto Publishing) del 1991 in perfetto stato di conservazione. In-4, legatura editoriale con copertina rigida telata blu e impressioni argento al dorso; sovraccoperta in carta plastificata (con strappo in prima al piede) illustrata a colori con alette; 192 pp., con risguardi blu, antiporta illustrata a colori e numerosissime illustrazioni a colori e in nero nel testo.

Dall’aletta anteriore: The sea, its changing moods and the ships that sail on it have all inspired generations of artists. The art of nautical illustration is a lavishly illustrated tribute to the best of the art these dedicated painters and illustrators have produced and is a testament to the problem the greatest of them have solved – the inevitable tension that arises between the demands of visual accuracy and the desire of the artists to create something that possesses a beauty and value of its own.

Period by period, theme by theme and school by school, the story of nautical illustration is outlined and explained, with comprehensive coverage of the great landmarks, such as the work of the Dutch painters and illustrators of the late 16th and 17th centuries, the two approaches to the subject that emerged in 19th century Europe, the work of the pioneer American nautical artists, the achievements of the so-called pierhead painters and on up to the present day. It shows, for instance, how, although initially strongly influenced by French example and comparatively primitive in style, American nautical art gradually became more sophisticated and individual, progressing to the point of becoming a separately identifiable school in its own right.

An authoritatively written, beautifully illustrated survey of nautical painting – possibly containing more full color reproductions than any other study published on the subject – from its earliest practitioners to the present day, The Art of Nautical Illustration is essential reading for all those who love the sea and all those who are attracted by nautical illustration as an absorbing art form.