About This Page:
The following is a list of recommended reading for all students of oil painting. Though some titles are recommended more highly than others, this working-list is currently ordered alphabetically.
I plan to add commentary and develop a relevancy rating system, eventually.
Book List:
Arnheim, Rudolf
The Power of the Center (1988)
Bridgman, George B.
The Book of a Hundred Hands (1920)
Cox, Kenyon
What Is Painting? Winslow Homer & Other Essays (1988)
Eastlake, Sir Charles Lock
Methods and Materials of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters (Two Volumes) (1847)
Elkins, James
Pictures & Tears: A history of People who have Cried in Front of Paintings (2001)
Elkins, James
The Object Stares Back (1996)
Elkins, James
What Painting Is (2000)
Goldfinger, Eliot
Human Anatomy for Artists (1991)
Hale, Robert Beverly
Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters (1964)
Hawthorne, Mrs. C. W.
Hawthorne on Painting (1960)
Hockney, David
Secret Knowledge (2001)
Mayer, Ralph
The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques (1940)
Parkhurst, Daniel Burleigh
The Painter in Oil (1903) [Available Free, online at ARC: link -or- Google: link ]
Protter, Eric
Painters on Painting (1971)
Robichaux, John W.
Hensche on Painting (1997)
Speed, Harold
Oil Painting Techniques and Materials (1944)
Speed, Harold
The Practice and Science of Drawing (1917)
Stiles, Kristine (& Selz, Peter)
Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art (1996)