My first thanks are to Nikos Stangos. As an editorial director of Thames & Hudson, Nikos proposed this book and steered it through to its publication in 1999. He died five years later. Nikos was wise, generous and graceful, and it was an honour to work with him. It was also a delight to work towards that original publication of the book with Andrew Brown as my copyeditor, and with the acute and constructive criticisms of my daughter Kate Bell improving the clarity of the argumentation.
Roger Thorp’s appointment to the position that Nikos once held at Thames & Hudson and his warm attentive interest in this book mean that I have been fortunate once again. This new and largely rewritten edition would not have been possible without the excellent work of Amber Husain and Poppy David, in house, nor without Michela Parkin’s superb copyediting. My thanks to each of them.
Discussions with friends who share my love for painting have helped mould the ideas put forward in this book, whether in its earlier or its present form. Those friends – who may view the issues raised quite otherwise – include Flick Allen, Mary Rose Beaumont, Nick Bodimeade, Philip Booth, David Carrier, Laura Cumming, Martin Golding, Tom Hammick, Timothy Hyman, Jonathan Jones, Joanna Lamb, Chris McHugh, Thomas Newbolt, Tom Walker and Jacob Willer. There have been many, many others, including my students at the City & Guilds of London Art School, Camberwell College of Arts and the Royal Drawing School.
This book is dedicated to the beloved memory of my father and my first tutor in painting, Quentin Bell (1910–1996).
Julian Bell
January 2017