Description

“Great paintings may not need words—but they invite them.”

Keeping an Eye Open by Julian Barnes makes great art easy to enjoy. His short, lively essays bring paintings to life and show why they still matter. Featuring works like The Raft of the Medusa and artists such as Édouard Manet and Lucian Freud. Insightful, engaging, and deeply human, this collection is perfect for anyone who’s ever stood before a painting and wanted to understand what it was saying—and why it matters.

A perfect pick for art lovers—or a thoughtful gift.

Keeping an Eye Open is the Art of Reading book club selection for August 2026.

Paperback
277 pages