# The Face of Britain: A History of the Nation Through Its Portraits - Hardcover

by **Simon Schama** (Author)

Author of a number of celebrated works, including the bestselling _The Story of the Jews_ and _Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution_, Simon Schama's latest book fuses history and art to create a tour de force of narrative sweep and illuminating insight. Using images from works-paintings, photographs, lithographs, etchings, sketches-found in London's National Portrait Gallery, _The Face of Britain_ weaves together an account of their composition, framed by their particular moment of creation, and in the process unveils a collective portrait of nation and its history.

"Portraits," Schama writes, "have always been made with an eye to posterity." Commissioned to paint Winston Churchill in 1954, Graham Sutherland struggled with how to capture the "savior" of Great Britain honestly and humanely. Schama calls the portrait, initially damned, the "most powerful image of a Great Briton ever executed." Annie Leibovitz's photograph of a nude John Lennon kissing Yoko Ono, taken five hours before his murder, bears "a weight of poignancy she could not possibly have anticipated." Hans Holbein's preparatory sketch for a portrait of Henry VIII depicts "an unstoppable engine of dynastic generation." Here are expressions from across the centuries of normalcy and heroism, beauty and disfigurement, aristocracy and deprivation, the familiar and the obscure-the faces of courtesans, warriors, workers, activists, playwrights, the high and mighty as well as pub-crawlers. Linking them is Schama's vibrant exploration of how their connective power emerges from the dynamic between subject and artist, work and viewer, time and place.

Schama's compelling analysis and impassioned evocation of these works create an unforgettable verbal mosaic that at once reveals and transforms the images he places before us. Lavishly illustrated and written with the storytelling brio that is Schama's trademark, _The Face of Britain_ invites us to look at a nation's visual legacies and find its reflection.

### Author Biography

**Simon Schama** is Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University and the author of many books, including _Rough Crossings_, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction, and _The Embarrassment of Riches_. He is a Contributing Editor to the _Financial Times_ for which he writes on politics and culture and has written and presented more than fifty documentaries for the BBC, PBS, and the History Channel, including _The Power of Art_, which won the 2007 International Emmy for Best Arts Programming.

**Number of Pages:** 632

**Dimensions:** 1.6 x 9.3 x 6.1 IN

**Publication Date:** September 16, 2016

## Details

- **Price:** 47.99 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 47.99 USD | In stock |

## Images

- The Face of Britain: A History of the Nation Through Its Portraits - Hardcover

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