Philip de Lászlo, following a meteoric rise to recognition in his native Hungary, settled in Britain in 1907 and became the leading portrait-painter in the country – taking over from Sargent. Marrying into the Guiness family, he painted members of almost every royal family in Europe and very many more of its Who’s Who. He painted the present Queen Elizabeth as a girl, as well as the late Queen Mother and George VI. He is known especially as a portraitist of beautiful women (including Elinor Glyn), but his male portraits are very forceful and his talent was universal – including landscape, animal subjects and children, and drawings and sketches as well as oil paintings. This book, the previous edition of which accompanied the first retrospective exhibition of de László since his death in 1937, illustrates a rich and representative selection of his work, drawn from a range of private collections, and, aided by stunning colour plates, re-introduces this well-known but little studied artist to a wider public. Its distinguished contributors include Christopher Lloyd, formerly Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, Gábor Bellák, Curator of 19th-century Paintings and Drawings at the Hungarian National Gallery, Richard Ormond, formerly Director of the National Maritime Museum and a recognised authority on Sargent, and Christopher Wood, well known for his books on 19th-century art. The catalogue entries, by Sandra de Laszlo, contain fascinating biographical as well as art historical information.

‘Of all the episodes within Peter Coker’s long career,’ writes Frances Spalding, ‘none is more surprising than the recent explosion of creativity following a difficult time of illness.’ Born in 1926, Peter Coker was elected RA in 1972; his substantial output of acknowledged work was recently commemorated in a catalogue raisonné. Since a stroke in 1990 his work has been severely impaired, but the chance discovery of some earlier drawings sparked this ‘explosion of creativity’, consisting of mixed media works, large oil paintings, lithographs and a series of etchings, The Parisian Suite. All the work is based on views from a particular spot by the Pont au Change to the Ile St-Louis in central Paris. It conveys, in Coker’s vigorous, decisive handling, sensations of energy, speed, rush, chaos and interruption in the city. Strong blues and occasional purples dominate many compositions; the brushmarks ‘eddy together like driftwood’. The oils are beautifully complemented by the elegant, varied and sprightly etchings.