The Essential Gombrich: Selected Writings on Art and Culture

This volume presents an accessible selection of Professor Gombrich’s best and most characteristic writing, and introduces the general reader to his ideas and arguments on many fundamental questions. In these meticulously assimilated writings he discusses the nature of representation, the psychology of perception, the interpretation of images, the problems of theory and method, the idea of progress, and symbolism and meaning in art.

Professor Gombrich’s writings include three major narrative works - The Story of Art, Art and Illusion and The Sense of Order - plus 11 volumes of collected essays and reviews. This anthology brings together a selection from all these books and in addition six pieces not previously published by Phaidon. It thus introduces the reader to the entire range of Gombrich’s thought. Richard Woodfield writes a general introduction, and provides extensive notes and guides to further reading.

Sir Ernst Gombrich (1909-2001) was one of the greatest and least conventional art historians of his age, achieving fame and distinction in three separate spheres: as a scholar, as a popularizer of art and as a pioneer of the application of the psychology of perception to the study of art. His best-known book, The Story of Art, first published 50 years ago and now in its 16th edition, is one of the most influential books aver written about art.

Richard Woodfield is Professor of Aesthetics and Art Theory at Nottingham Trent University, and the editor of Reflections on the History of Art, a collection of E H Gombrich’s book reviews.