The Artist's Sketchbook (Victoria and Albert Museum)

The first in an exciting and inspirational new V&A sketchbook series that explores the sketching processes and techniques of artists from the 16th century to the present day. Artists have been using sketchbooks for many hundreds of years, particularly as part of the preparatory process that leads to the creation of great works. Selected by curators from the extensive sketchbook collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and organized chronologically by artist, The Artist’s Sketchbook introduces around eighty profiles from different eras and movements, including John Constable, Beatrix Potter, Paul Nash, and Julie Verhoeven.

Each profile includes a short text on the artist and their use of the sketchbook. The book brims with exquisite examples of drawings from life and the imagination, material experimentation and the planning of greater works. With rich, detailed photography, the sketchbooks are shown to be very much works of art in themselves, with open-book shots and selected covers reproduced as well as single pages.

The book also highlights less well-known names as well as unrecognized artists, mostly women, for whom sketchbooks provided a creative outlet. While working within the limits of the V&A collection, the selection includes sketchbooks from beyond Britain and Europe by drawing on expertise from across the museum. Just as artists do, some inevitably blur the line between art, design, and fashion.

With an introduction by Jenny Gaschke, Senior Curator of Paintings and Drawings at the V&A, the book highlights the importance of sketching and the sketchbook throughout the history of art. Although not a practical guide to sketching techniques, it will nevertheless inspire the reader and appeal to anyone interested in the process of making art, and to those for whom sketching is a critical part of their own artistic practice.