Autograph Manuscript by Sir Albert Edward Richardson, Professor of Architecture, University College, London, titled 'Brief History of Painting and Analysis of Masterpieces', with 156 postcards laid down as illustrations.

79pp., 8vo. In stout, thumb-indexed diary for 1930. In fair condition, on aged paper, in heavily worn binding, lacking spine and bowed by the excess material it contains. Ownership inscription by Richardson on flyleaf: 'A E Richardson ARA | Avenue House, | Ampthill Beds. | St. Catherine's College Cambridge, | 1939-1940 | University College, London.' Richardson published a number of works on architectural matters, but nothing on the history of art. These notes are of interest as the work of a future President of the Royal Academy, but do not in themselves provide a particularly profound or novel approach to art history, being entirely devoted to European art, and ending with the English painters of eighteenth century. The postcards are mainly in black and white, with the first sixty or so providing examples to illustrate the development of European art, and the rest, with a few exceptions (for example seven depicting eighteenth century model soldiers), devoted to British art. The first paragraph indicates: 'Painting. | The Italian Renaissance. | 13th Centy. At the beginning of the 13th Century there was an awakening in interest in Italy in the Antique. The term Renaissance or rebirth aptly describes this movement | But it should not be imagined that the influence of the Arts of the old world had been entirely forgotten in the intervening time that separates the decline of the Roman Empire from the period when the Revival of Classical Art assumed definite form.'