The World's Leading Painters

What it is

This is a 1912 book called The World's Leading Painters, written by George B. Rose. It gives short accounts of six famous painters: Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Rubens, Velázquez and Rembrandt. A scanned copy survives in a university library collection.

Why it matters

By the early 1900s, Raphael was already seen as one of the great masters of the Renaissance, worth including in popular books meant to introduce readers to art history. This book shows how later generations studied and summarised the lives of painters like Raphael for a general audience, long after he died.

Look closer

• Why might an author in 1912 group Raphael together with painters who lived a century or more apart from him?
• What does the existence of a popular survey book tell us about how ordinary readers learned about famous artists?
• What might be left out when six long lives are each summed up in one chapter?