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The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 14: Turner

Excerpt:

Later in life, Turner travelled in France, Germany, and Italy. In Venice his eyes were gladdened by the gorgeous colours above her lagoons. Henceforth he makes his pictures blaze with hues scarcely dared by painter before. But so great was his previous mastery of the paler shades, that a few touches of brilliant colour could set his whole canvas aflame. Even in the ‘Temeraire,’ the sunset occupies less than half the picture. The cold colours of night have already fallen on the ship, and there remains but a touch of red from the smoke of the tug.

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

The Fighting Temeraire (by Turner)

Come back next Monday for chapter 15!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 13: Reynolds and the Eighteenth Century

Excerpt:

The eighteenth century was a time when politicians and men of letters had the habit of gathering in the coffee-houses of London—forerunners of the clubs of to-day. Conversation was valued as one of life’s best enjoyments, and the varied society of actors, authors, and politicians, in which it flourished best, could only be obtained in the town. To the most distinguished circle of that kind in London, our painter Reynolds belonged.

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

The Duke of Gloucester (by Reynolds)

Come back next Monday for chapter 14!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 12: Velasquez

Excerpt:

Velasquez’s power with his brush lay in depicting vividly a scene that he saw; thus in portraiture he was at his best. He knew how to pose his figures to perfection, so as to make the expression of their character a true pictorial subject.

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

Don Balthazar Carlos (by Velasquez)

Come back next Monday for chapter 13!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 11: Van Dyck

Excerpt:

Van Dyck was the first painter who taught people how they ought to look, to befit an admirer’s view of their aristocratic rank. His portraits thus express the social position of the sitter as well as the individual character. Although this has been an aim of portrait-painters in modern times, when they have been painting people of rank, it was less usual in the seventeenth century.

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

William II. of Orange (by Van Dyck)

Come back next Monday for chapter 12!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 10: Peter de Hoogh and Cuyp

Excerpt:

All his subjects are of the domestic Dutch life of the seventeenth century, but the arrangement in rooms, passages, courtyards, and enclosed gardens admitted of much variation. We never feel that the range of subjects is limited, for the light transforms each into a scene of that poetic beauty which it was Peter de Hoogh’s great gift to discern, enjoy, and record.

Here are the paintings discussed in this chapter:

An Interior (by de Hoogh)

Landscape (by Cuyp)

Come back next Monday for chapter 11!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 9: Rembrandt

Excerpt:

More than any artist that had gone before him, Rembrandt was fascinated by the problem of light. The brightest patch of white on a canvas will look black if you hold it up against the sky. How, then, can the fire of sunshine be depicted at all?

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

A Man in Armour (br Rembrandt)

Come back next Monday for chapter 10!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

About a week ago I got two packages in the mail on the very same day.

One was from knitpicks and contained two balls of Telemark, which will become a gift for a friend. The other was from Lisa at mainlesson.com and contained two wonderful paperback reprints of classic children’s books! If you haven’t been to mainlesson, go there. Lisa scans and OCRs public-domain children’s books, formats them nicely for reading online, and also sells inexpensive, high-quality reprints of the books!

I recorded “Poems Every Child Should Know” for librivox last year, so it’s wonderful to have a real paper version now. And Shell Crandall and I are recording The Story of Mankind as a duet, each of us reading every other chapter. It’s a spectacular book. I’m enjoying it immensely, and I recommend it very highly. It’s surprisingly modern and extremely readable, having been published in 1922 — just before the public domain cut-off (Jan 1, 1923) — and it won the first Newberry Medal in 1923. Homeschoolers! Buy a copy and read it out loud to your kids, or wait a couple months until Shell and I are finished and we’ll do the reading aloud for you, and your kids can follow along with the text :)

Here are links to both books on mainlesson.com:
The Story of Mankind
Poems Every Child Should Know

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 8: The Renaissance in the North

Excerpt:

In a drawing which Dürer made of himself in the looking-glass at the age of thirteen, we see a thoughtful little face gazing out upon the world with questioning eyes. Already the delicacy of the lines is striking, and the hair so beautifully finished that we can anticipate the later artist whose pictures are remarkable for so surprising a wealth of detail.

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

Edward, Prince of Wales (by Holbein)

Come back next Monday for chapter 9!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

Really thoughtful Q&A session with our founder, Hugh McGuire:
http://toc.oreilly.com/2008/11/open-source-community-and-audi.html

Is there any distinction between “amateur” and “professional” on LibriVox? How do you define quality in a volunteer effort? Does quality even matter in this case?

No, there is no distinction really. Everyone is encouraged to join us. We have a wide range of quality, from truly exceptional (in a traditional sense), to good, to not so great. Our goal, however, is to record the books, and to make a platform that allows anyone to contribute to the effort. We ask no questions, require no auditions, make no judgments about style or technique, and are happy for every single audio file someone chooses to contribute to the project.

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 7: The Renaissance in Venice

Excerpt:

Like Raphael, Giorgione was precocious, but unlike him he painted in a style of his own that from the very beginning owed little to any one else. He saw beauty in his own way, and was not impelled to see it differently by coming into contact with other artists, however great.

While painting in the rest of Italy was becoming mannered and sentimental, lacking in power and originality, Tintoret in Venice was creating masterpieces with a very fury of invention and a corresponding swiftness of hand.

Here are the paintings discussed in this chapter:

The Golden Age (by Giorgione)

Saint George Destroying the Dragon (by Tintoret)

Come back next Monday for chapter 8!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 6: Raphael

Excerpt:

In the ‘Knight’s Dream’ there is a simple beauty in the pose and grouping of the figures. You can hardly fancy three figures better arranged for the purpose of the subject. There is something inevitable about them, which is the highest praise due to a mastery of design in the art of composition. Raphael’s surpassing gift was in fitting beautiful figures into any given space, so that it seems as though the space had been made to fit the figures, instead of the figures to fit the space.

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

The Knight’s Dream

Come back next Monday for chapter 7!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 5: The Renaissance

Excerpt:

The manner in which this picture is painted is still more suggestive of change than the subject itself. Our artist knew a great deal about the new science of perspective, for instance. One might almost think that, pleased with his new knowledge, he had multiplied the number of objects on the shelves so as to show how well he could foreshorten them. Medieval painters had not troubled about perspective, and were more concerned, as we have seen, to make a pretty pattern of shapes and colours for their pictures. The Van Eycks, as we noted, only acquired the beginnings of an understanding of it, and were very proud of their new knowledge. It was in Italy that all the rules were at last brought to light.

Here are the paintings discussed in this chapter:

St. Jerome in his Study

The Nativity

Come back next Monday for chapter 6!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 4: The Van Eycks

Excerpt:

Hubert van Eyck, in attempting to depict the event at the Sepulchre as it might actually have occurred outside the walls of the City of Jerusalem, was doing something quite novel in his day. His picture might almost be called a Bible illustration. It is at least painted in the same practical spirit as that of a man painting an illustration for any other book. It is not a picture meant to help one to pray, or meditate. It does not express any religious idea. It was intended to be the veracious representation of an actual event, shown as, and when, and how it happened, true to the facts so far as Hubert knew them.

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

The Three Maries

Come back next Monday for chapter 5!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

At LibriVox we keep track of the total number of hours of audio that we’ve cataloged. For the last few weeks we’ve been watching as that total climbed up towards 365 days and today, just a few minutes ago, we crossed over the 365 day mark — we now have over a full year of free, volunteer-read, public domain audiobooks for the world to enjoy. Here’s a screenshot of our statistics tracker:

So, start listening now, twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week, and you’ll still be listening on October 10 2009! And by then we’ll have lots more done so you’ll probably never catch up :)

Thank you, LibriVox volunteers! You’re the best!

edit: just after I posted this, another book was completed so we now have 367 days of audio :)

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 3: Richard II

Excerpt:

Our first picture is a portrait of Richard II. on his coronation day in the year 1377, when he was ten years old. It is the earliest one selected, and the eyes of those who see it for the first time will surely look surprised. The jewel-like effect of the sapphire-winged angels and coral-robed Richard against the golden background is not at all what we are accustomed to see. Nowadays it may take some time and a little patience before we can cast ourselves back to the year 1377 and look at the picture with the eyes of the person who painted it. Let us begin with a search for his purpose and meaning at least.

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

Richard II

Or, see large, beautiful, modern photos of the painting on its wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilton_diptych

Come back next Monday for chapter 4!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 2: The Thirteenth Century in Europe

Excerpt:

Before we give our whole attention to the first picture, of which the original was painted in England in 1377, let us imagine ourselves in the year 1200 making a rapid tour through the chief countries of Europe to see for ourselves how the people lived. The first thing that will strike us on our journey is the contrast between the grandeur of the churches and public buildings and the insignificance of most of the houses.

Come back next Monday for chapter 3!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Excerpt:

Now, the old pictures you see in the picture galleries are just like that, only the people that painted them didn’t invent the stories but merely illustrated stories which, at the time those painters lived, every one knew. Some of the stories were true and some were just a kind of fairy tale, and it didn’t matter to the painters, and it doesn’t matter to us, which was true and which wasn’t. The only thing that matters is whether the story is a good one and whether the picture is a nice one.

Come back next Monday for chapter 2!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

Helen’s Babies by John Habberton, Part 12

Helen’s Babies, Part 12

Read by me!

And that’s the last chapter of Helen’s Babies. I hope enjoyed listening to it as much as I enjoyed recording it! Next Monday I’ll begin posting chapters from The Book of Art for Young People, a wonderful book about art history.

Helen’s Babies by John Habberton, Part 11

Helen’s Babies, Part 11

Read by me!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book here: http://librivox.org/helens-babies-by-john-habberton/)

Helen’s Babies by John Habberton, Part 10

Helen’s Babies, Part 10

Read by me!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book here: http://librivox.org/helens-babies-by-john-habberton/)