Immortal Thoughts

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A remarkable, heartfelt, beautifully written analysis of the late work of 19 major artists that Max Porter describes as ‘completely and utterly marvellous’

In 2020, Christopher Neve retreated to his childhood home to revel in the transcendent beauty of the seasons and to reflect on the final works of his favourite artists. Immortal Thoughts is an anthology of these reflections.

From Cézanne’s last watercolours to Michelangelo’s final drawings, from Rembrandt and suffering to Gwen John and absence, Neve dwells on artists’ late ideas, memory and places. In discussing great art in the context of Time and the Dance of Death, this impassioned and distinctive book brings a profound new perspective to the history of art.
Extent: 160 pp
Format: Paperback
Illustrations: 29
Publication date: 2025-07-03
Size: 19.8 x 12.9 cm
ISBN: 9780500298244
Introduction: Cézanne. Last watercolours • Bonnard’s Last Four Paintings • Titian • Michelangelo’s Last Five Drawings • Sculptors’ Drawings • SPRING: Rembrandt and Suffering • Frans Hals. Last Painting • Camille Pissarro at a Window • Absence. (Gwen John) • EARLY SUMMER: Claude, Poussin and Time • Goya • Velasquez. Las Meninas • A Footnote about El Greco • Morandi • Chardin • Constable • HIGH SUMMER: Daumier. On Not Finishing • LATE SUMMER: Rouault • Soutine • WINTER

Press Reviews

A beautiful book of essays about the late style of major artists
Ben Okri

It is rare indeed to encounter a book about art which is itself a work of art… Christopher Neve’s <i>Immortal Thoughts</i> is a direct and conscious attempt to distil, by a passionate engagement with the work of eighteen artists, the essence of art itself
John Banville, New Statesman

Christopher Neve finds words to capture the visual imagination of great artists in their final days. Their dance with death is made yet more poignant because Neve composed this beautiful little book in 2020, during lockdown, and his short essays are interspersed with snatches of world news from the “wireless” and glimpses of a plane-less blue sky
David Reynolds, Books of the Year, New Statesman

From Titian and Michelangelo to Cezanne and Soutine, from Velazquez and Chardin to Bonnard and Pissarro, Neve sketches out the final periods of artists’ lives in lilting, lyrical prose ... His painterly style, his eye for detail and colour, is all the more powerful for the way that he juxtaposes it with the news of the outside world ... His approach amounts to a kind of emotional ekphrasis
Times Literary Supplement

About the Author

Christopher Neve was a painter and writer. He is the author of several books and articles. His book Unquiet Landscape: Places and Ideas in 20th-century British Painting (1990, 2020), arose out of long talks with his friend Ben Nicholson and other artists, and is published by Thames and Hudson.

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