Facing the Facts Book 9 – A history of art

EH Gombrich wrote his book The History of Art in 1950. The copy I own is the fourteenth edition, originally published in1984 – I note that there was a new edition published as recently as 2023 so it’s still as popular as ever. I bought mine in the 1980s when I was doing an Open University Course. It wasn’t the book set for the unit but I enjoyed Art and Illusion so much that I bought the more popular book for my own reading. I did read it then but haven’t read it since and thus it’s approaching forty years since I opened it. I popped it on my to-be-read pile some time ago otherwise I would just have read new books and never got back to this one. I am glad that I chose it for this challenge but it has taken me a while to complete it, as it has over 500 pages.

The author gives a chronological view of the history of art, starting with cave paintings and Egyptian tombs. He works through the different schools of art up to what was the present day when the book was published. You need to be aware that when the author talks about art he means European art. Occasionally there is mention of African, Japanese or even American art but it’s only in passing and only to show how it influenced European art. The book is mainly concerned with painting, with some mention of architecture and sculpture.

The author guides us through the years and changes in easy to understand prose. He talks about artists and discusses pictures and anything he mentions is illustrated, with the illustrations being close to the place where you are reading. When he refers back to previous illustrations these are well referenced and easy to find. In my copy over half the illustrations are in colour. The way that the book is organised and laid out is a delight for the reader because you are not always flicking back and forth. The author has chosen the pictures that he loves or thinks are important so some of your favourites may be omitted, for example there is surprisingly little about the pre-Raphaelites, but I recognised most of the choices and enjoyed being introduced to others.

For someone like myself who has a general interest in art this is a useful and fascinating book. It is very readable and easy to follow. Some of the words that the author uses are of their time and we would regard some of the ways in which he describes indigenous peoples as offensive, we also wouldn’t now use the word “gay” in the same way as he does. I noted that the book displays out of date views on the Early Medieval Period, which he describes as the Dark Ages, and on how the pyramids were built. These little things attract your attention when you come upon them but they are minor niggles in comparison with all that the book gives you in the way of knowledge, understanding and exposure to great paintings.

This book goes back with my collection of books about art, hopefully to be opened again before another forty years have passed, and I shall add Art and Illusion to the to-be-read pile