Sacred Monsters, Sacred Masters is a gallery of profiles of some of the most curious and creative figures that John Richardson has encountered during a career of more than fifty years. The subjects range from the monstrous art collector, Dr. Barnes of Philadelphia to Peggy Guggenheim, Cecil Beaton, the Sitwells, Dali and such contemporary figures as the painters Brice Marden and Lucian Freud. ohn Richardson's reputation was established internationally with the publication of the first two volumes of his monumental biography of Picasso, described by Robert Hughes as the most illuminating biography yet written on a twentieth century artist. With two further volumes in preparation, Richardson has devoted his life to the study of the great painter, who befriended him in Provence in the fifties. The acclaim that greeted Richardson's Picasso biography was based on his authority as a witness and his superb narrative skill. In Sacred Monsters, Sacred Masters, as in his recent memoir The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Richardson comes from out of the shadow of Picasso to describe a wider cast of writers, artists and eccentrics. his collection is a portrait of a vanished age of which Richard