Don Hedgpeth

A large format, boldly illustrated book, providing an insight to the Tom Lovell, and artist who specialised in painting the American West - native Americans and the Civil War. Following the introduction the book is divided into five parts, the first four deal with a specific subject or area highlighted by Lovell's work, the final part concerns itself with the artist. The book concludes with a list of plates, but there is no bibliography and no index.

Each of the first four parts has a few pages of text to be followed by many pages of Lovell's paintings, each of which is accompanied by a few lines of text. These sections and the companying notes to each picture do not discuss the paintings as such, but use them as starting points or illustrations to a history discussion or lesson of the West. While the Introduction does concern itself with being just that: an introduction to the artist, it is really only the final part which actually discusses the artist and his work, and here we have an outline of the man and his career and some brief mentions of his approach to his work. The paintings in this section are also discussed in their own right.

The book is lavishly illustrated with well in excess of 100 full colour plates, along with a good number of black and white sketches and drawings. The work included while predominantly is not exclusively his Western art; the final part covers a wide range of subject matter including modern war paintings and historical illustration.

The plates in this book are superb, many full page or larger, there are several double page bleed images and even some fold out pages. However the text and the overall presentation let the book down. Apart from the title there is little indication of the aim of the book; is it about American history or about Tom Lovell? Certainly the first four sections suggest the former; it is only the Introduction and the final section which concern themselves with the artist. As for the presentation, it is unnecessarily brash so that it detracts from the work; Lovell's paintings are so full of energy and vitality they do not need a colourful graphic presentation, they would be better appreciated presented simply. It is still a fine book, but purely for the wonderful large reproductions of the artist's work.… (meer)