The Nobile Folios are monographic explorations of twentieth- and twenty-first century masterpieces, mostly of British art. Each booklet explores one painting, and one painting only, and attempts to overcome some of the inherent limitations of reproducing any great painting in print by replicating something of the experience of seeing the painting in the flesh.

Forthcoming in the series are explorations of works by Mark Gertler, Walter Sickert, David Bomberg, Leon Kossoff, and Leo Davy to mention but a few.

One of the primary gestures in the appreciation of large canvases is the act of moving in closer in order to see greater details, to immerse oneself in the painting. Not every work lends itself to this kind of investigation, but when it does, curbing one’s view seems to unleash new paintings, variations on the grand theme of the canvas as a whole. The whole is nothing but the sum of these refractions, though admittedly a sum larger than its parts. Each spread in The Nobile Folios is an attempt to identify and to explore these auxiliary paintings – with an added benefit. Most of the canvases in the series are much larger than even the largest of books; the fragmented view releases the painting from the Procrustean constraints of the printed page, drawing us nearer to a real-life appreciation of the painting.

Words are an inseparable part of our experience of a painting. Verbal expressions can take many different forms: a learned discourse, an entertaining anecdote, a touching recollection, or merely an association. The juxtaposed texts that form part of The Nobile Folios, are precisely the latter: informative associations. They represent words that might come to mind when one gazes at the painting. The association, obvious or oblique, complements our attempt to explore the painting and to enhance our experience of it.