"In 2012 the author made it his personal mission to see all 42 surviving paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. This is his insightful and thought-provoking account of that quest --- part disquisition on the artist, life, and death, part memoir, and part 'travel literature'. I found it enchanting. Everyone who loves Bruegel should have this beautifully-produced book."
Publisher Harper
Publication Date 2020-02-25
Section New Hardcover - Biography / Art / All Staff Suggestions / Nonfiction Suggestions / Alan H.
Format Hardcover
ISBN 9780062931757
Sure to be hailed alongside H is for Hawk and The Hare with Amber Eyes, an exceptional work that is at once an astonishing journey across countries and continents, an immersive examination of a great artist’s work, and a moving and intimate memoir.
In 2012, facing the death of his father and impending fatherhood, Toby Ferris set off on a seemingly quixotic mission to track down and look at—in situ—every painting still in existence by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the most influential and important artist of Northern Renaissance painting.
The result of that pursuit is a remarkable journey through major European cities and across continents. As Ferris takes a keen analytical eye to the paintings, each piece brings new revelations about Bruegel’s art, and gives way to meditations on mortality, fatherhood, and life. Ferris conjures a whole world to which most of us have probably lost the key, and in the process teaches us how to look, patiently and curiously, at the world.
Short Life in a Strange World is a dazzlingly original and assured debut—a strange and bewitching hybrid of art criticism, philosophical reflection, and poignant memoir. Beautifully illustrated with sixty-six color images, it subtly alters the way we see the world and ourselves.
