For 300 years, a unique and complex artistic puzzle has been hidden, the solution of which reveals an extraordinary critique of what can be described as the first modern media revolution. The mind behind this puzzle was a Dutch/British still-life painter named Edward Collier. Working around 1700, Collier has been neglected, even forgotten, precisely because his secret messages have never been noticed, let alone understood. Until now. In this book, Dror Wahrman recovers the tale of an extraordinary illusionist artist who engaged in a wholly original way with a major transformation of his generation: an unprecedented explosion in cheap print - newspapers, pamphlets, informational publications, artistic prints - that was produced for immediate release and far-flung circulation faster and in larger quantities that ever before. Edward Collier developed a secret language within his still-life paintings - replete with minutely coded messages, witty games, intricate allusions, and private jokes - in order to draw attention to the potential and the pitfalls of this new information age, uncannily prefiguring the modern perspectives of the media-savvy 21st century. This heretofore obscure artist embedded in his paintings an ingenious commentary on the media revolution of his period, on the birth of modern politics, and on art itself.

About the Author
Ruth N. Halls Professor of History, Indiana University and Professor of History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Reviews
Wahrman guides the reader through the details of the evidence as he finds it on dozens of canvases and, where possible, in Dutch archives with such a sure hand that most readers will not feel that a better story is possible.... * Journal of Modern History *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199738861
Author Dror Wahrman
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 858g
Dimensions(mm) 242mm * 166mm * 25mm