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Art therapy for the soul. One of the most unexpectedly useful things we can do when we’re feeling glum or out of sorts is to look at pictures. The best works of art can lift our spirits, remind us of what we love and return perspective to our situation. A few moments in front of the right picture can rescue us. Art is one of the most unexpected and beautiful defenses we have against despair.
Each of the uplifting images in this collection comes paired with a brief inspirational essay. The images range widely across time and space: from ancient to modern art, east to west, and north to south. They include photography, paintings, abstract and figurative art. Each image has been carefully chosen with a particular problem in mind: a broken heart, career challenges, relationship troubles, and more.
This is a portable museum dedicated to beauty and consolation, a unique book about art which is also about psychology and healing: a true piece of art therapy.
- A CURATED COLLECTION OF ARTWORKS from artists around the world, each accompanied by an essay.
- ARTISTS INCLUDE Edgar Degas, Cy Twombly, Gustave Caillebotte, Louise Bourgeois, Hiroshi Yoshida, Johannes Vermeer, Georgia O’Keeffe and more.
- ART AS THERAPY FOR THE SOUL this book highlights the therapeutic benefit of art. Artworks featured from galleries including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The National Gallery, London and Tate Museum, London.
"Filled with images that celebrate and capture the joys of life, from cakes in a Parisian patisserie to sunlit interiors, this is the ideal book to lift your spirits when you're feeling down. Beautifully curated, there are well-known masterpieces by the likes of Vermeer, Venetian glassware and drawings by Louise Bourgeois, as well as surprising sketchbook studies of sheep by Henry Moore. Full of beautiful surprises and hidden gems from history, this book carries a great message: looking at art is good for you." - Ruth Millington, author of Muse
"[A]ll about the power of art, through art that can be joyous or sombre, and there's a welcome freshness to it." - Tabish Khan, FAD Magazine
"Art Against Despair is curated art therapy for the soul. The pictures in it, and the commentary, and cheer you up/or help you to feel less alone. The images inside are chosen with a particular issue in mind, for instance a broken heart. Highly recommended for lovers of art and writing." - NetGalley review
“Art Against Despair is a book of selected art works to inspire hope and comfort. Each piece of art is selected with a particular issue in mind and is accompanied with explanatory and inspirational text It is art therapy for the soul and the book suggests that looking at good works of art is one of the most unexpectedly useful things we can do when we’re feeling glum or out of sorts ... Overall a good book and a great idea.” – NetGalley review
"Great read for art lovers." - NetGalley review
“Art Against Despair is a thoughtful look at how looking at art can heal the soul. With a range of images, photography, painting and sculpture, art is examined through time as is the emotional rollercoaster of life. If you are feeling blue or out of your depth about a particular life circumstance then maybe this book is for you. It's a book for art lovers, but also those unfamiliar with art's power to heal in a frenetic, polarised world." - NetGalley review
The School of Life is a global organization helping people lead more fulfilled lives. Through our range of books, gifts and stationery we aim to prompt more thoughtful natures and help everyone to find fulfillment.
The School of Life is a resource for exploring self-knowledge, relationships, work, socializing, finding calm, and enjoying culture through content, community, and conversation. You can find us online, in stores and in welcoming spaces around the world offering classes, events, and one-to-one therapy sessions.
The School of Life is a rapidly growing global brand, with over 7 million YouTube subscribers, 389,000 Facebook followers, 174,000 Instagram followers and 166,000 Twitter followers.
The School of Life Press brings together the thinking and ideas of the School of Life creative team under the direction of series editor, Alain de Botton. Their books share a coherent, curated message that speaks with one voice: calm, reassuring, and sane.
1. Henri Cartier-Bresson, New York City, Brooklyn, 2nd Avenue, A café, 1947
2. Francisco Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (no. 43), from Los Caprichos, 1799
3. Ad Reinhardt, Abstract Painting, 1963
4. Jim Goldberg, Untitled, 1978
5. Alec Dawson, Nobody Claps any more, 2014
6. Robert Adams, Longmont, Colorado from What We Bought: The New World, Scenes from the Denver Metropolitan Area, 1970-1974
7. Edgar Degas, Family Portrait, c. 1858-1869
8. Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1954
9. Étienne-Jules Marey, The Running Jump, 1882
10. Gustave Caillebotte, Rooftops in the Snow, 1878
11. Louise Bourgeois, The Insomnia Drawings (detail), 1994–1995
12. Drinking glass, from Venice, Italy, c. 1550–1650
13. Giotto, crying angels, detail of the Lamentation of Christ, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, 1305
14. Roman votives, 2nd-3rd century BCE
15. Edouard Vuillard, In Bed, 1891
16. Claude Monet, Boat at Low Tide at Fecamp, 1881
17. William Playfair, Exports and Imports of Scotland to and from different parts for one Year from Christmas 1780 to Christmas 1781, 1786
18. Gail Albert Halaban, Paris, Out of My Window, 2012
19. John Lund, Tanker In Ocean Storm, 2019
20. Constantin Brancusi, The Beginning of the World, 1924
21. Hiroshi Yoshida, Kumoi Cherry Trees, 1926
22. Jules Germain Cloquet, The Digestive Tract, plate 297 from the Manuel d’anatomie descriptive du corps humain, 1825
23. Rania Matar, Izzy, Brookline, Massachusetts from A Girl and Her Room, 2009
24. Robert Rauschenberg, Automobile Tire Print, 1953
25. Cuno Amiet, Snowy Landscape (Deep Winter), 1904
26. Thomas Gainsborough, The Painter's Daughters with a Cat, c. 1760-1761
27. Gustave Caillebotte, View Seen Through A Balcony, 1880
28. Thomas Struth, Musée du Louvre IV, Paris 1989
29. Félix Vallotton, The Great Cloud, 1900
30. Jean-Baptiste Regnault, The Origin of Painting, 1786
31. Gwen John, A Corner of the Artist’s Room in Paris, 1907–1909
32. Peder Severin Krøyer, Roses, 1893; Prayer niche (mihrab), from Isfahan, Iran, c. 1500s
33. William Scott, Still Life, 1973
34. Daniel Spoerri, Variations d'un petit déjeuner, 1966
35. Wayne Thiebaud, Cakes, 1963
36. Stephen Shore, Breakfast, Trail’s End Restaurant, Kanab, Utah, August 10, 1973, 1973;
37. Antonio da Correggio, The Holy Night, 1528–1530
38. John Ruskin, Enlarged Studies of the Feathers of a Kingfisher's Wing and Head, and a Study of a Group of the Wing Feathers, c. 1871
39. Émile-Antoine Bayard and Alphonse de Neuville, Illustrations for Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, 1865
40. Slim Aarons, Sarah Marson Williams enjoys a cocktail on the beach at the Hilton Hotel, Needhams Point, Barbados, April 1976, 1976
41. Ferdinand Hodler, The Dents du Midi from Champéry, 1916
42. Felix Vallotton, The Ball (Corner of the Park with Child Playing with a Ball), 1899
43. Winston Churchill, Still Life, Fruit, 1935; Burt Glinn, Monk Raking Gravel, Kyoto, 1961
44. Nicolaes Maes, Young Woman Peeling Apples, c. 1655
45. Jacobus Vrel, Woman at a Window, Waving at a Girl, c. 1650
46. Nicolaes Maes, The Naughty Drummer, 1655
47. Julia Fullerton-Batten, The Rehearsal, 2012
48. Joel Meyerowitz, New York City, 1963
49. Natalie McComas, Five-year old Ryan’s superhero party. Eighteen children attended the party for three hours. Total cost of party: $100, from Birthday Wishes, 2006
50. Raymond Depardon, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980
51. William Steig, “How do you spell ‘hate’?”, c. 1960’s
52. Edward Gorey, The Doubtful Guest, 1958
53. Alec Dawson, Nobody Claps Anymore, 2014
54. Hans Baldung, Woodcut of Aristotle ridden by Phyllis, 1515
55. Lucian Freud, Strawberries, 1952
56. William Hogarth, Marriage A-la-Mode: 1, The Marriage Settlement, 1743
57. David Hurn, Coach party from the valleys on holiday during the fortnight close down of the pits. Aberavon beach, Wales, 1971
58. Richard Learoyd, Tatiana on Mirror, 2010
59. ‘Tommy Tittlemouse,’ owned by James Gowan (1907-1986), manufactured Germany, c. 1908
60. Garry Winogrand, Los Angeles International Airport, 1964
61. Jan Steen, The Sleeping Couple, c. 1658–1660; George Thames, William Masters and Virginia Johnson interviewing a couple at the Reproductive Biology Research Foundation, St Louis, Missouri, 1969
62. Timothy Archibald, Dan and Jan from Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews, 2005
63. Gary Winogrand, Opening, New York Painting and Sculpture, 1940-1970, Exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of art, New York, 1969
64. Nuna Peoples, Carved hawk’s mask, Southern Burkina Faso
65. Martine Franck, France, Hauts de Seine, “Maison de Nanterre”, old people’s house, 1978
66. Bernhard Lang, Adria, 2014
67. Peter Paul Rubens, The Three Graces, 1630-1635
68. Sandro Botticelli, The Mystical Nativity, 1500
69. Henry Moore, from The Sheep Sketchbook, 1972
70. Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid, c. 1660
71. Jacob van Ruisdael, The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede, c. 1670
72. Mary Cassatt, The Young Mother (Mother Berthe Holding Her Baby), 1900
73. Samuel Luke Fildes, The Village Wedding, 1883
74. Georgia O’Keeffe, Untitled (Hand), c. 1902
75. Philippe Halsman, Marilyn Monroe reading in her apartment, 1952
76. Spencer Gore, Interior, 1910
77. Allan Douglas Davidson, She (The Blushing Girl), 1930
78. Govardhan, A Discourse between Muslim Sages, c. 1630
79. Robert Adams, Longmont, Colorado from What We Bought: The New World, Scenes from the Denver Metropolitan Area, 1974
80. Luis Velasco, Back of an Anonymous Scientist Working in a Laboratory, 2021
81. Chien-Chi Chang, Thailand, Bangkok International Airport, 2012
82. Robert Adams, Untitled (potato chips) from What We Bought: The New World, Scenes from the Denver Metropolitan Area, 1970–1974
83. Abbas, India, 5, Rajasthan, near Bundi, section of a highway being constructed, 2016
84. Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Fountain of Youth, 1546
85. Rembrandt van Rijn, The Woman Taken in Adultery, 1644
86. Associated Press, A 15-year-old girl emboldens her fellow Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, 1966
87. Rogier van der Weyden, Archangel Michael Weighing Souls from The Beaune Altarpiece (detail), 1445–1450
88. William Hodges, Tahiti Revisited, 1776
89. Jan Brueghel the Elder, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, 1615
90. Laura Stevens, Lily from Another November, 2014
91. Pieter Saenredam, The Interior of the Nieuwe Kerk, Haarlem, Seen from the South-west, 1658
92. Curiosity Self-Portrait at 'Glen Etive' site, 2019
93. Eugene Atget, Boutique Fleurs, rue de Vaugirard, c. 1923–1924
94. Copies of Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night, Dafen, China, 2014
95. Francisco Goya, I Am Still Learning, c. 1826.