Book Competition

This week’s competition prize is Object Lessons: The Visualisation of Nineteenth-Century Life Sciences, by George Loudon (Ridinghouse, £24.95). Click here for your chance to win.

Assembling nearly 200 pieces from the collection of George Loudon, this volume encompasses a vast assortment of objects relating to nineteenth-century life sciences. Originally designed to capture the complex structures of nature, they range from books and illustrations to botanical specimens and anatomical models. Having lost most of their original pedagogical function over time, the objects are now open for contemporary reappraisal; acquiring new values that can inspire and even disorientate today’s viewer. Alongside new photography by Rosamond Purcell, explanatory texts on the objects by Loudon, an essay by Robert McCracken Peck, and a conversation between Loudon and Lynne Cooke together offer insight into the objects’ original context and potential for new perspectives.

For your chance to win simply answer the following question and submit your details here before midday on 28 August 2015.

Whose collection of anatomical specimens provided the founding collection for the Hunterian Museum in London?

This competition closes at midday on 28 August 2015.

For our last competition prize we offered Van Gogh: The Birth of an Artist, by Sjraar van Heugten (Yale University Press, £40).

Which art dealership employed Vincent Van Gogh in the summer of 1869?

Answer: Goupil and Cie

Congratulations to the winner, Luke Naessens.