Christopher Neve

A remarkable, heartfelt, beautifully written analysis of the late work of major artists which author Max Porter has called “completely and utterly marvelous.” In 2020, as the spread of COVID-19 caused pandemonium worldwide,a painter and writer returned to a childhood home to reflect upon the transcendence of nature and the work of the artists he most admires. It seems to Christopher Neve that in their final works—their late style—that they have something remarkable in common. This has more to do with intuition and memory than with rationality or reason. Immortal Thoughts: Late Style in a Time of Plague is an anthology of these reflections. In this personal and moving account, nineteen short essays on artists are interspersed with recollections of the cataclysmic global progress of the disease in poignant contrast to the beauty of the seasons in Neve’s isolated house and garden. From Paul Cézanne and Michelangelo to Rembrandt and Gwen John, Neve dwells on artists’ late ideas, memories, risks, and places in the context of time and mortality. As much art history as a discussion of great art in the context of the “dance of death,” Neve also writes about Pierre Bonnard, Giorgio Morandi, Nicolas Poussin, Chaim Soutine, and many others. Immortal Thoughts is a summary of a lifetime’s contemplation of art.

Immortal Thoughts: Late Style in a Time of Plague

Focuses on how it is that artists, by thinking in paint, have come to regard the landscape as representing states of mind. The book is a journey into the imagination through the English landscape. Each chapter has a theme - such as music - and explores its significance for one or more artists.

Places and Ideas in Twentieth-century English Painting

Unquiet Landscape

Painting exists and exults in immortal thoughts William BlakeIn 2020, as the spread of Covid-19 causes pandemonium worldwide, an elderly artist returns to his childhood home to watch the transcendent beauty of the seasons and reflect on the final work of the artists he most admires. It seems to him that in their final art works their late style that they have something remarkable in common. This has more to do with intuition and memory than with rationality or reason and comes from trying to write about painting itself. Immortal Thoughts: Late Style in a Time of Plague is an anthology of these reflections. In this personal and moving account, nineteen short essays on artists are interspersed with short accounts of the cataclysmic global progress of the disease in poignant contrast to the beauty of the seasons in the isolated house and garden, narrative strands that are closely intertwined. From Cézanne's last watercolours to Michelangelos final five drawings, Rembrandt and suffering to Gwen John and absence, Christopher Neve dwells on artists late ideas, memory, risk, handling and places, in the terrible context of Time and mortality. As much art history as a discussion of great art in the context of the Dance of Death, Neve writes with renewed passion about Bonnard, Michelangelo, Morandi, Poussin, Soutine and many others in his distinctive style.

Christopher Neve

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