Whistler, Munnings, Sargent, Steer, John, Orpen, Bateman, the New English Art Club, the War Artists, the Royal Academy, the fight against Modernism. Scandals and crisis, the Chelsea Arts Ball... In the year since its foundation in 1891, the Chelsea Arts Club has not failed to make its mark. In fact this is an unbuttoned history of a hundred years of British Arts and Tom Cross's considerable achievement is to show how the main protagonists interacted within the framework of the Club membership to add a new, human perspective to our knowledge of the world.
The warts-and-all story of this much-loved watering-hole in the heart of Chelsea is so preoccupied with the world of artists that it would be unthinkable for the book to be unillustrated. Artists and Bohemians has gone to the other extreme and over 150 beautiful, wicked and always interesting drawings and paintings in colour and black-and-white - many previously unpublished - decorate the pages.
The book is in very good condition. The jacket is also in good condition with only a slight crease at the top.