After our recent trip to the National Maritime Museum and Queen’s House, both parts of the Royal Museums Greenwich, I have a consuming passion for naval maritime painting.
I recently ordered a very cheap copy of The Art of the Van de Veldes, which arrived yesterday. I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed in this. It’s actually pretty decent, for what it is. But it’s far from what I really wanted.
This latest addition to my portfolio of interests has been brewing up a while now. I’ve had some great books from Pen & Sword, via some of their maritime imprints, such as Glasgow Museums, The Ship Models, and Warships of the Napoleonic Era, by Robert Gardiner (my review of the latter can be read here). Plus I had already acquired Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail, by Bernard Ireland, and one or two other titles in this line.
The issue, and it’s actually a very common one, especially with slightly older art books, is that there are only a very few colour images (and these are neither big nor very high quality), the bulk of the images being black and white.
As is so often the case, in this deeply capitalist society of ours, what I really want proves to be unaffordably expensive! This looks much more like what I’m after:
That said, and given the money folk are asking (mostly around the £300+ mark!) I’d want to be 100% sure these actually have lots of juicy high quality full-colour reproductions! And from what little info’ on them I’ve garnered online, I’m not sure that they do!