Bernard Berenson

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“It is difficult to imagine a better biography or a better subject for one. Mr. Berenson wanted to improve the world, and he did. How he did it is a heroic and terribly human story… Everybody who was anybody in the art world at the time appears in Bernard Berenson… The killings in the art market, the quarrels among experts and the convoluted negotiations all make for even better reading than one might anticipate, for at the center of it all, beyond the story of our greatest art critic, is art itself.”—The New York Times

“Samuels’s chronicle of this long career happily abounds in both personal and ‘anecdotic’ detail—about Berenson’s often stormy marriage, his love affairs…his quarrels and prejudices, his friendships with figures as far apart as Edith Wharton and Ray Bradbury… At the same time the gossip is never allowed to drown out a serious assessment of Berenson’s intellectual and scholarly significance.”—The New York Times

“Painstakingly researched and beautifully written.”—London Review of Books

“A biographical narrative of vast scope and highest distinction. The human world that Samuels brings so richly and solidly into being, spanning five decades, is populated with an extraordinary cast of characters, none more fascinating than Berenson himself. The complex transactions of his public career and the intricacies of his private life are handled with equal skill and knowledge, with impressive even-handedness and a fine sense of proportion. It is a remarkable achievement.”—R. W. B. Lewis