JAMES HAMILTON

Shortlisted for the Apollo Awards 2014Longlisted for the Art Book Prize 2014Britain in the nineteenth century saw a series of technological and social changes which continue to influence and direct us today. Its reactants were human genius, money and influence, its crucibles the streets and institutions, its catalyst time, its control the market.In this rich and fascinating book, James Hamilton investigates the vibrant exchange between culture and business in nineteenth-century Britain, which became a centre for world commerce following the industrial revolution. He explores how art was made and paid for, the turns of fashion, and the new demands of a growing middle-class, prominent among whom were the artists themselves. While leading figures such as Turner, Constable, Landseer, Coleridge, Wordsworth and Dickens are players here, so too are the patrons, financiers, collectors and industrialists; lawyers, publishers, entrepreneurs and journalists; artists suppliers, engravers, dealers and curators; hostesses, shopkeepers and brothel keepers; quacks, charlatans and auctioneers. Hamilton brings them all vividly to life in this kaleidoscopic portrait of the business of culture in nineteenth-century Britain, and provides thrilling and original insights into the working lives of some of our most celebrated artists.

ONE OF THE TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES' BEST BOOKS FOR 2022'Eye-opening and full of surprises . . .A treasure' Sunday Times'A biography as rich with colourful characters as any novel' TelegraphJohn Constable, the revolutionary nineteenth-century painter of the landscapes and skies of southern England, is Britain's best-loved but perhaps least understood artist. His paintings reflect visions of landscape that shocked and perplexed his contemporaries: attentive to detail, spontaneous in gesture, brave in their use of colour. What we learn from his landscapes is that Constable had sharp local knowledge of Suffolk, a clarity of expression of the skyscapes above Hampstead, an understanding of the human tides in London and Brighton, and a rare ability in his late paintings of Salisbury Cathedral to transform silent suppressed passion into paint.

A fresh and lively biography of the revolutionary landscape painter John Constable.John Constable, who captured the landscapes and skies of southern England in a way never before seen on canvas, is beloved but little-understood artist.His paintings reflect visions of landscape that shocked and perplexed his contemporaries: attentive to detail, spontaneous in gesture, brave in their use of color. His landscapes show that he had sharp local knowledge of the environment. His skyscapes show a clarity of expression rarely seen in other artists work. The figures within show an understanding of the human tides of his time. And his late paintings of Salisbury Cathedral show a rare ability to transform silent, suppressed passion into paint.Constable was also an active and energetic correspondent. His letters and diaries reveal a man of opinion, passion, and discord. His letters also reveal the lives and circumstances of his extended family who serve to define the social and economic landscape against which he can be most clearly seen. These multifaceted reflections draw a sharp picture of the person, as well as the painter.James Hamiltons biography reveals a complex and troubled man. Hamiltons portrait explodes previous mythologies about this timeless artist and establishes him in his proper context as a giant of European art.

From "The Work of the Puritan Divines"

A major biography of Michael Faraday (17911867), one of the giants of 19th century science and discoverer of electricity who was at the centre of an extraordinary scientific renaissance in London. Faradays life was truly inspirational. Son of a Yorkshire blacksmith who moved to London in 1789, he was a self-made, self-educated man whose public life was underpinned by his devotion to a minor Christian sect (the Sandemanians) and to his wife. He was also a fine writer and brilliant lecturer. This book is a passionate exploration of his life, work and times (he was a pioneering scientific all-rounder who also experimented with electromagnetism, techniques for preserving meat and fish, optical glass, the safety lamp, and the identification of iodine as a new element). It will also tell the story of the dawn of the modern scientific age and interweave Faradays life with the groundbreaking work of the Royal Institution and other early scientists like Humphrey Davey, Charles Babbage, John Herschel and Mary Somerville.

La historia de un largo proceso de búsqueda de justicia por parte de tres víctimas del caso KaradimaDesde que el Caso Karadima se transformara en uno de los más significativos casos de abuso en la iglesia chilena, el camino que han seguido tres de sus victimas ha estado rodeado de dificultades. Sin embargo, desde que el papa Francisco los recibiera en el Vaticano, ocho años despues, esa historia (y la historia de la iglesia chilena) ha tenido un giro orientado a la busqueda de reparacion por los daños causados.Esta es su historia.

ONE OF THE TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMESBEST BOOKS FOR 2022SHORTLISTED FOR THE POL ROGER DUFF COOPER PRIZE 2023Eye-opening and full of surprises . . . A treasureSunday TimesA biography as rich with colourful characters as any novelTelegraphJohn Constable, the revolutionary nineteenth-century painter of the landscapes and skies of southern England, is Britains best-loved but perhaps least understood artist.His paintings reflect visions of landscape that shocked and perplexed his contemporaries: attentive to detail, spontaneous in gesture, brave in their use of colour. What we learn from his landscapes is that Constable had sharp local knowledge of Suffolk, a clarity of expression of the skyscapes above Hampstead, an understanding of the human tides in London and Brighton, and a rare ability in his late paintings of Salisbury Cathedral to transform silent suppressed passion into paint.Yet Constable was also an active and energetic correspondent. His letters and diaries - there are over one thousand letters from and to him - reveal a man of passion, opinion and discord, while his character and personality is concealed behind the high shimmering colour of his paintings. They reveal too the lives and circumstances of his brothers and his sisters, his cousins and his aunts, who serve to define the social and economic landscape against which he can be most clearly seen. These multifaceted reflections draw a sharp picture of the person, as well as the painter.James Hamiltons biography reveals a complex, troubled man, and explodes previous mythologies about this timeless artist, and establishes him in his proper context as a giant of European art.

J.M.W. Turner was a painter whose treatment of light put him squarely in the pantheon of the worlds preeminent artists, but his character was a tangle of fascinating contradictions. While he could be coarse and rude, manipulative, ill-mannered, and inarticulate, he was also generous, questioning, and humane, and he displayed through his work a hitherto unrecognized optimism about the course of human progress. With two illegitimate daughters and several mistresses whom Turner made a career of not including in his public life, the painter was also known for his entrepreneurial cunning, demanding and receiving the highest prices for his work.Over the course of sixty years, Turner traveled thousands of miles to seek out the landscapes of England and Europe. He was drawn overwhelmingly to coasts, to the electrifying rub of the land with the sea, and he regularly observed their union from the cliff, the beach, the pier, or from a small boat. Fueled by his prodigious talent, Turner revealed to himself and others the personality of the British and European landscapes and the moods of the surrounding seas. He kept no diary, but his many sketchbooks are intensely autobiographical, giving clues to his techniques, his itineraries, his income and expenditures, and his struggle to master the theories of perspective.In Turner, James Hamilton takes advantage of new material discovered since the 1975 bicentennial celebration of the artists birth, paying particular attention to the diary of sketches with which Turner narrated his life. Hamiltons textured portrait is fully complemented by a sixteen-page illustrations insert, including many color reproductions of Turners most famous landscape paintings. Seamlessly blending vibrant biography with astute art criticism, Hamilton writes with energy, style, and erudition to address the contradictions of this great artist.

THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY OF J.M.W. TURNER, REISSUED TO MARK THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTHA pleasure to readA.S. BYATTWith splendid clarity and shrewd humour, James Hamilton evokes the visceral world of a great artist and a fascinating characterMIKE LEIGH, Academy Award-winning director of Mr. TurnerJ.M.W. Turner became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1799, aged just twenty-four. As influential collectors competed to buy his paintings, he travelled widely - in an era defined by industrial change and social turbulence, he observed both landscape and people, gathering material for a series of works that would come to express the collective identity of Britain.Blending vibrant biography and art history, James Hamilton paints a remarkable portrait of an eccentric and enigmatic figure. He examines the fascinating conflicts of Turners life and legacy, revealing him to be a giant of the nineteenth century and a beacon for the twenty-first.

** Selected as a Book of the Year in The Times, Sunday Times and Observer **Compulsively readable - the pages seem to turn themselves John Carey, Sunday Times Brings one of the very greatest [artists] vividly to lifeLiterary ReviewThomas Gainsborough (1727-88) lived as if electricity shot through his sinews and crackled at his finger ends. He was a gentle and empathetic family man, but had a shockingly loose, libidinous manner and a volatility that could lead him to slash his paintings. James Hamilton reveals the artist in his many contexts: the talented Suffolk lad, transported to the heights of fashion; the rake-on-the-make in London, learning his craft in the shadow of Hogarth; the society-portrait painter in Bath and London who earned huge sums by charming the right people into his studio. With fresh insights into original sources, Gainsborough: A Portrait transforms our understanding of this fascinating man, and enlightens the century that bore him.

Less cost! More features! Bragging rights!Lets face it: Woodworking isnt cheap. Wood and materials alone can cost a small fortune. And well-designed commercial woodworking machines are often so expensive that they are beyond the reach of many home woodworkers. So whats a woodworker to do? Do what Stumpy Nubs does and build your own!In The Homemade Woodshop, James Hamilton, creator of the popular Stumpy Nubs website, shows you how to build woodworking machines for a fraction of the cost of store-bought models--and with more features to boot! Youll discover 12 detailed projects for building precise, durable shop-made machines including: Sliding-top router table that makes joinery safe and easy Multi-function downdraft table that combines dust collection with countless workholding applications Sliding crosscut table that gives your table saw the precision and convenience of a high-end European saw 24" band saw that offers all of the throat capacity of an industrial model in a size that will fit on a benchtop Crosscut "super-sled" that allows you to create box joints, splined miters, tenons and more Table saw workstation that affords you a complete workshop in a 4 x 8 footprint And 7 more!The projects in this book not only save you money, but they allow you to add more features and, ultimately, greater precision and more versatility to the machines in your shop. And lets face it: Having a shop outfitted with machines that you built yourself is just cool.