Illustrated throughout with original, evocative imagery as well as reproductions of art, these introductory biographies explore the works and lives of important artists and architects in detail, and trace the influence of their legacies on our world.

The son of a radical journalist father and a mother descended from suffragists and South American viceroys, Paul Gauguin was born in France during the 1848 Revolution and grew up in Peru, seemingly destined to never fit in. "I am a great artist and I know it," he wrote. "It's because I am that I have endured so much suffering. If it had not been to pursue my vocation, I would consider myself an outlaw." With collage illustrations inspired by his work, this biography traces Gauguin's ongoing struggle to balance the civilized man and the natural one in his art.