A behind-the-scenes look at the most famous works of art in the world.

William Greenwood is Curator at the Zayed National Museum, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He was previously Albukhary Foundation Curator of the Islamic World at the British Museum and co-curator of the exhibition Inspired by the East: how the Islamic world influenced Western art.

Lucien de Guise is an author and co-curator of the exhibition Inspired by the East: how the Islamic world influenced Western art. Having spent many years working in Malaysia as a museum curator and directo...

How old is the oldest chat-up line between men? Who was the first lesbian? Were ancient Greek men who had sex together necessarily gay? And what did Shakespeare think about cross-dressing? This title deals with these questions.

A pictorial survey of the rich use of floral motifs in the details of India’s architectural wonders, depicted here in Henry Wilson’s fine photographs and breathtakingly precise drawings.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) felt a profound empathy with the natural environment, and considered the spiritual essence of trees to be comparable with that of human figures. This book traces Van Goghs development as a painter of trees in the natural landscape from his home province of North Brabant, through Paris to Provence.

From the 1860s through to the early 20th century the rise of Japonisme and the Art Nouveau movement meant that few could ignore or resist the obsession with all things Japanese. This book includes examples of the designed and executed decorative arts of the Meiji periods from the Khalili Collection.

'I perhaps owe it to flowers', wrote Claude Monet (1840-1926), 'that I became a painter.' One of the leading figures of the Impressionist movement and perhaps the most celebrated landscape painter of his age, Monet dedicated his life to capturing the subtleties of the natural world. Trees - willows enveloped in the eerie mists of the Seine, palm trees beneath the bright Mediterranean sun or poplars heavily laden with snow - became a significant motif in his work, and he used them to experimen...

From the editor of the bestselling Histories of Nations, an eye-opening anthology showing how people have suffered and survived during plague and pandemic, from the ancient world to the present.