"Sensations presents a radically new story of British art. It
connects the artists of today with British culture more than
three hundred years ago as it finds an unexpected thread that
links William Hogarth and Tracey Emin, Thomas Gainsborough and
Lucian Freud. What they share is an eye for the real world. I
hope this book will change how you see Britain, and its art." -
Jonathan Jones
What is the artistic impulse uniting Robert Hooke's drawings of
insects, George Stubbs's studies of horses and Damien Hirst's
pickled shark? In this new and spirited account of British art,
Jonathan Jones argues for empiricism. From the Enlightenment to
the present, British artists have shared a passion for looking
hard at the world around them. Jones shows how this zeal for
precision and careful observation paved the way for Realism,
Impressionism and the birth of modern art.