A stunning collection and history. I loved this book so very much. It would make a divine coffee table book or gift.

This is a fascinating look at the art world. This history focuses on the dealers. The author starts at the beginning and traces the influence of dealers on what was exhibited and sold. The author really knows his subject and offers all sorts of anecdotes. Many of the artists will be familiar to most readers. However the men and a few women behind the artists may be unfamiliar. The text is accompanied by a lot of illustrations. Enjoy this history of art from the dealer's perspective.

A fascinating look behind the scenes of the art world and shows how from the Renaissance all the way to the Contemporary Era the evolution of the buying, trading, and dishonesty in art dealing.

Extremely well researched in regards to the relationships between buyers and owners, museums and the select few artists Hook wrote about. There is a beautiful spread of painting in the middle of the book as well.

I would recommend that anyone- even if one is or isn't knowledgeable in art- this was just so well done and not dense at all. I rather liked this book and will need to pick up a copy myself, as I highlighted so much in the ebook-would love to have this book as a reference. This would also be perfect for anyone considering or that does run a gallery.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest opinion. My thanks to Philip Hook and The Experiment for the opportunity to read and review this book.

was unable to read this because it was not downloadable to kindle- looked really interesting though!

I am not typically a lover of non-fiction, and while I appreciate art I do not do a lot of reading geared towards it. However, Hook was able to draw me in with this intriguing, sometimes humorous and always fascinating look into the world of art dealing. This book gives a behind the scenes look into art dealing and would certainly be good for those who would like to use it for reference as well as those who are interested in the good, the bad and the ugly of the art world. I found this book to provide a thorough account of the relationships between the players in the dealer/collection process while still being simple enough for those of us not in the field to understand. Overall, I applaud Hook for taking a topic I had little knowledge about and making it interesting enough to keep me turning pages.

This is an in-depth look at specific art dealers within specific periods of art, and gives a true behind the scenes look at the politics and economics of art. Many fun tidbits, beautiful full-color art plates, and phrases like "an ecstasy of oleaginous sycophancy."

As interesting as the synopsis sounded, the book itself failed to live up to expectations. The history of art and its dealers before the twentieth century was rather quickly glossed over, then most of the book focused on 'modern' art dealers. The chapters were largely brief biographies of highlighted dealers who were apparently important to the various art movements, but for the most part, I couldn't tell you why they were important.

I finished "Rogues' Gallery" pretty much as ignorant of "A History of Art and its Dealers" as when I started. Perhaps someone already very familiar with art dealers, their history, and impact on art movements would find this book useful. From the point of view of an art outsider, I found it unevenly written, never scratching below the surface, unable to enlighten me on anything, and not a book I would want to reread to see if I understood any more the second time around.

Readers who wish to know more about the world of art dealing may want to pick up this title. Hook examines the world of art dealing over the last few centuries, highlighting key art dealers and their partnerships with the biggest named artists of their time. Hook examines how art dealers themselves did or did not influence artists’ works, as well as the influence art dealers had with clients and art appreciation as a whole.

This is not a narrative nonfiction but ideal for those interested in the art world. I learned much about the intricacies involved between artist, art dealer and/or auctioneer and art patron/art buyer. Some of the dealers highlighted led colorful lives; it was their deep appreciation in art, or in a few cases the almighty dollar, that led new art movements to become popular among buyers and collectors. I appreciated the research Hook did in order to create a very comprehensive look at western world art buying, with chapters featuring the United States, European countries and England.

This is a perfect book for anyone studying art history or who may even have an interest in working in a gallery, museum or even becoming an art dealer. Recommended.

Review posted simultaneously on Goodreads, LibraryThing and Litsy at links provided to NetGalley.

Philip Hook gives every art lover and every artist an invaluable gift. From the broad historical layout of where the art market came from to where it is going, to the incredible quotes that make the art of the sale seem so clear Hook presents a world in all of its complexity.

Its a practical matter of selling the ineffable products of an artist to those with fathomless wealth. And to that you end up with people who make it happen. Hook goes in depth with the characters who have made up this world.

To be sure its not for everyone. If you find buying art to be a fools game this will not convince you otherwise. What this work will do is show you the reasons why some art has been the source of great wealth, while others have found little if any economic value.

Informative, extremely interesting and eminently readable, Philip Hook’s exploration of art dealing and art dealers is a real delight. Narrated in a lively and accessible style, with flashes of Hook’s dry wit, the book is a thoroughly well-researched and endlessly fascinating account of the art world and the art market through the ages.

This book was an interesting read about Art Dealers. This is such an interesting take on how art can become Art. Art dealers were part buyers, many were artists themselves, publicists, hype men, pushers, specialists, scoundrels. Art dealers were buffeted along by the winds of chance in many instances, revolutions, anti monarchical stirrings, Napoleon, made art dealing very uncertain and sometimes profitable. Art dealers took advantage of cultural convention, technology, and used various methods of persuasion to move art around the world. This was an interesting read there were many colorful characters moving around in the art world and Art itself was the point but making art, Art was in many ways the work of the art dealer.

Rogue’s Gallery is a history book about art dealers. Now, this is history and the author does use a lot of facts, but we must remember that this is someone’s point of view on art dealers’ history. Once we have made this point clear, I must say that Rogue’s Gallery is clearly targeting a certain audience and not necessarily artists. However, art teachers, historians, and owners of art galleries will find it interesting and even a rich reference resource. This is a non-fiction read so readers must not expect a lot of pictures, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the book has a good number of images and photographs in both color and black and white. It also has a very complete bibliography and an index which are of great help to researchers but many times publishers overlook, so I was glad to see that in this book. The book is about 304 pages and I welcome that as I personally do not like very long non-fiction books. For those who would like to treat this book as a reference resource I want to share that the book is divided into four major parts: Renaissance and Enlightenment, the Nineteenth Century, Modern Times, and Into the Contemporary World. This book is not the authority on the history of art dealers, but it is a very complete resource that may offer users a great deal of room for exploration and discovery.

Philip Hook has written a book that could easily be used in university-level Art History classes and probably should be. <i>Rogues' Gallery</i> highlights the vital importance, and occasional really dirty dealing, of art dealers ranging from the Renaissance to Contemporary era of European and American art. Without dealers, artists would often have been unable to sell their works and one need only look at the number of known artists who died in abject poverty to see that even a dealer selling at exorbitant markup was still putting money in an artist's hands that otherwise mightn't have gotten there.

Hook details the lives and business strategies of dealers such as the legendary Durand-Ruel, whose promotion of the successful Barbizon School painters and the edgy Impressionists drove the success of these painters, in spite of heavy criticism of the latter in the more formal Paris Salon of the 1860's. By keeping the work of the great Impressionists on display to the more open-minded British and American art buying public in London and New York, he allowed painters now lauded, like Monet, Renoir and Manet, to survive and later thrive. Likewise, the role of Kahnweiler in promoting Cubism and artists like Picasso and Braque cannot be overstated. Featuring dealers as diverse as the "thrillingly dishonest" Duveen and "gallerist" Castelli, Hook gives us an insiders perspective on making and selling art. For anyone well-versed in Art History, The Rogues' Gallery (still not sure I agree with that title in full) presents a fascinating look at a side of the art world that is little seen. Add to this the fascinating role of famous collector/dealers such as the rather scandalous Peggy Guggenheim, and all in all you have quite the appealing read if you're a lover of Western art.

Community Assistant at NetGalley. Review is for testing purposes only.

I was unable to successfully download this book. I will not be able to review it at this time. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Judi Easley at Blue Cat Review

An interesting book about Art dealing, Antiquity and History. Philip Hook shares his knowledge and the unique perspective he gained over the years as a very well-versed art director and art dealer. This is a book filled with highly detailed stories and so much expertise.

But be aware of the fact that as a reader you need to display an impressive level of erudition as well, in order to follow sufficiently this work and of course a certain level of artistical interest otherwise the reading process will turn into a very tedious experience.

So, delve into this story about crooked art dealers that lack a moral compass, families who turn against their own only to gain money, people who will try to earn status quo through buying paintings by the dozen and museum curators that will do anything about a good exhibit. Enjoy!!!! I know I did, immensely.


THOUGHTS ABOUT THE BOOK

- Wide historical range.
- Many anecdote stories, for example, there is one evolving J.P. Morgan. Also, The Art of Shopping is a very prominent chapter about art dealings in the USA.
- I loved the Wildenstein Dynasty chapter.

This book covers a topic that has always fascinated me. What makes one amalgamation of wood, canvas and oil paint worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and another one worth $15 at a garage sale? True, anyone can see the genius in a Monet, but “genius” is in this case a human-defined quantity. To put it another way, how did Monet’s craft become “genius”, while your brother-in-law’s still-life paintings clog up the garage?

Philip Hook has the experience and expertise to tackle this question. He has held senior positions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and has an appreciation for both the current and historical art market.


=== The Good Stuff ===

* Hook writes well, and avoids the complicated and flowery language that plagues art books. He is able to explain various artistic styles and complicated artist/agent relationships in a way that makes them understandable and interesting.

* The narrative runs over several hundred years, and the author is able to show how art brokers fit in with their own times, and yet how many of their sales tactics and business strategies were timeless. Along the way we meet art merchants of various degrees of morality and trustworthiness.

* Hook is at his best when examining the motivation of the artist and art broker, and how they intersect. For example, it was not uncommon for brokers to “contract” to buy some percentage of an artist’s output for a fixed price. While the artist ended up with less money than he might have made on the open market, he was guaranteed a fixed and predictable income stream. Similarly, some well-known artists might owe some of their fame and success to their broker’s ability to place their paintings in top-tier collections.

* The tactics of the brokers were interesting and well explained. For example, as American businessmen became wealthy, they represented a new market for predominantly European dealers. The dealers capitalized on this, and pitched art to the newly rich Americans as a way to “class themselves up”. A short time later, they taunted their former European customers with the ability of the Americans to see new artistic trends and invest in truly modern and revolutionary art.

=== The Not-So-Good Stuff ===

* There was obviously more detail available to the author on more modern artists and dealers, and more of this is included in the book. However, many of these stories were quite similar, and the book had a tendency to drag.

* Hook avoids giving his opinions, but it would have been interesting to hear his speculation on the overall value of art middlemen. Clearly some artists might never have become the “masters” they are today, but you can’t help wonder how many truly great artists never saw the light of day because of the role of the brokers. Similarly, there is not much hint as to how many of the brokers and middlemen were ultimately successful-and how many died with a garage full of their brother-in-law’s still life painting.

=== Summary ===

The book was a great look at the role of middlemen in the fine arts marketplace. There is no question that they influenced it greatly, and probably were responsible for developing the careers of many of the great artists. We see the brokers at their altruistic best and their conniving worst-often at the same time. If you are a fan of art, or the business or art, you will likely enjoy the book.

This was an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher!

It was also a fascinating study of art dealership over the centuries (yes, centuries!), focusing on some of the main characters of the last two or three hundred years, and their modi operandi. It's also, in parallel, a study of greed, avarice and capitalism at its worst. I found it engrossing, and was pleased to see that one of my pet peeves about scholarly works like this: that they have margins far too wide, and text lines far too widely-spaced, and are thereby abusive to trees, circumvented in this case, because the margins were not ridiculously wide and the text was quite finely spaced, so you see? It can be done! Kudos to the author and publisher for achieving this.

Of course, none of that matters if the book is only to be released as an ebook, but usually these works are not, so this is important. In fact, one of only two complaints I might make is that this book it did not work as an ebook because it was in PDF format which is not ebook-friendly unless you read it on a reasonably large tablet or on a laptop or desktop computer.

On a smart phone, the text is far too small to read comfortably, and if you try to "stretch" the screen to enlarge it, it takes forever to get the fit right, and then you can't swipe to the next screen without reducing the text again! It was a real irritation. Another issue was that the PDF format did not lend itself to reading in "night mode" wherein the screen colors are inverted so the text is white and the page is black.

This is actually my preferred mode to read, and it's a great way to save energy (by reducing battery use so recharges are required less frequently), but it doesn't work with this because what happens is that the screen colors are quite literally inverted - not just the text, but also the images, so instead of looking at gray-scale photographs of people or art works, you're looking at photographic negatives. I think publishers have a long way to go before they can say they're in the ebook book business - and have that claim sound intelligent!

The other complaint I originally had was circumvented in one away but exacerbated in another! It was initially to be that the biggest problem with the book was that, for a work which talks about paintings, it was curiously lacking in pictures of them! In fact there are pictures, and in color, but they are set together in the middle of the book rather than appearing close to the text that references them. Again this is because the book as designed as a print book, not as an ebook.

There are also pictures of some of the characters brought to life here, but these are in gray-scale imagery. When I also saw a couple of pictures in that format too, I had feared this was all I would get, and not even at their best because of the lack of color, but I need not have worried because between pages 160 and 177 there is satisfaction to be had. It only served to leave me wanting more though.

If there is to be an ebook version of this, then it would have been a real joy to have had links directly in the text to an online source for color images of the paintings which are discussed. This would be a perfect use of an ebook, especially since I am also greedy when it comes to wanting to see everything that's talked about. Again this leads me to believe this was produced solely with thought to the print market and not to the electronic market, which begs the question as to why the review copy is being distributed in electronic from? It made little sense to me and did no justice to either the print version or to the e-version if there ever is to be one. But I have to blame the publisher, rather than the writer, for this! it did make me decide not to request any books of this nature for review in future. I don't think it's possible to adequately review a book designed for print by means of an electronic version of it when it contains art work as this one does.

But let's look at the writing because to me, that's typically far more important than anything else. This book focuses on the last four or five hundred years, becoming more detailed as we get into the twentieth century, but it reaches even as far back as ancient Grecian times, so it is very wide-ranging.

Art dealing is nothing new, but those dealers from yesteryear can scarcely have imagined the kinds of sums that modern art dealers routinely deal in, not when a dealer sells a picture in the USA and immediately claims $300 is the highest price that will ever be paid for a painting in America! LOL! Even in Victorian times, there were large sums of money exchanging hands in one direction as paintings moved in the other. Some of these characters, such as Joe Duveen, were both notorious and well-liked, others were merely notorious. For at least one character, his love of his partner's wife evidently exceeded his love of art, and this queered his pitch in a serious way in time.

Another dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, who almost single-handedly brought Impressionist works into the spotlight when no one else gave them the time of day was an intriguing guy. The names of the people he personally knew are impressive: Degas, Monet, Manet, Pissaro, Renoir, and so on. It's pretty odd to think someone knew all of those guys and such a relationship would be a lot harder to have today, when artists names are not so legendary as those past masters.

There are controversial issues discussed here, too, such as how maligned should be those art dealers who dealt with the Nazis? On the one hand, they rescued paintings that would probably have been destroyed, since the Nazis considered them deviant. On the other hand, those who rescued the paintings by buying them from the Nazi art dealers (and others), were helping to fund that evil cult even as they preserved the paintings. Were they good or bad or were they, like the pictures of the people featured in this book - in a gray area?!

The author makes some fascinating observations and interesting points, and he's not afraid to ask awkward questions about dealers or about dealing in general. Does it really make it better to say that pictures are sources and placed rather bought or sold, for example?! It may rob the transaction of its 'filthy lucre' connotations, but does it really sanitize those transactions?

I should probably say before I close out this review, that I'm not widely knowledgeable about art, nor do I consider myself even remotely an expert on the topic. I'm not an artist either, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate a book like this or learn something from it.

So while I can very much enjoy works of art, I can also see both sides of this world - the appreciative side, and the cynical side. What I think is that art is a very personal thing, and its most personal for all of course, for to the artist. Anyone beyond that artist who talks about art is doing it purely from their own perspective, not from any objective and authoritative position. Anyone who wants a laugh at the expense of art critics (not the same as dealers per se, but definitely in a parallel line of "business", they should look up Pierre Brassau in wikipedia.

On a related note, When we have a director of a state museum of art, Katja Schneider, mistaking a painting done by a chimpanzee, for a work by the artist Ernst Nay, it serves only to highlight how very personal a world this is, and sometimes i honestly have to wonder if any of these people really have a clue what they're talking about!

That Impressionism, which is today renowned, had to be kick-started against opposition for example, poses questions about what is art, who determines this, how the quality of one picture over another is to be honestly and fairly judged, and how some works get to become all but priceless, whereas others which to someone like me, seem every much the same, cannot even command a price. This book helped with some of those questions (it comes down to trust as often as it does dissimulation it would seem!), but it also raised others, and that's fine with me; ideal in fact!

Overall, I do recommend this for anyone interested in art and art history. It makes for an engrossing insight into the past, and into the world of the dealer, As well as into artists and dealers themselves, and the shifting, often contentious, yet at other times endearing and heartwarming relationship between them, and into people struggling to make a living, and those with more money than sense!