Wealthy Americans with homes in Paris and on the French Riviera, Gerald and Sara Murphy were at the very center of expatriate cultural and social life during the modernist ferment of the 1920s. Gerald Murphy-witty, urbane, and elusive-was a giver of magical parties and an acclaimed painter. Sara Murphy, an enigmatic beauty who wore her pearls to the beach, enthralled and inspired Pablo Picasso (he painted her both clothed and nude), Ernest Hemingway,...

In the 1980s former President Jimmy Carter took up painting in his free time. Using his home woodworking shop as a studio, Carter has since produced more than a hundred works, capturing the landscapes and people of his beloved Plains, Georgia, and the far-flung places to which he has traveled to advance the work of the The Carter Center. This book showcases in one place for the first time, more than fifty of his favorite paintings. The works are accompanied...

Arriving as a young writer in an ancient Dutch town, Benjamin Moser found himself visiting ... the country's great museums. Inside these old buildings, he discovered the remains of the Dutch Golden Age, and began to unearth the strange, inspiring, and terrifying stories of the artists who gave shape to one of the most luminous moments in the history of human creativity. Beyond the sainted Rembrandt--who harbored a startling darkness--and the mysterious...