William Vaughan

What's the difference between a cast shadow and a form shadow? Why do shadows become increasingly important in Western art? Can we only ever see shadows, not objects themselves, as Plato claimed? In this beautiful little book, printmaker and History of Art Professor William Vaughan presents the history of shadows, from their emergence in the visual arts to their association...

Samuel Palmer (1805–1881) was one of the leading British landscape painters of the 19th century. Inspired by his mentor, the artist and poet William Blake, Palmer brought a new spiritual intensity to his interpretation of nature, producing works of unprecedented boldness and fervency. Pre-eminent scholar William Vaughan—who organized the Palmer retrospective at the British Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of...

John Constable is best known for his idyllic paintings of the English countryside. Yet he was also a brilliant innovator who brought a new vivacity to the observation of nature. He practised oil painting in the open air, capturing in particular the 'effervescent' effects of atmospherics—as can be seen, for example, in his wonderful studies of clouds. His art became...