Great Masters of Art: Monet: A Retrospective [Hardcover]

Charles F. Stuckey (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Interweaving reproductions of Monet's paintings with contemporaneous newspaper reviews, articles and interviews, this magnificently illustrated album (134 color and 120 black-and-white plates, plus 20 color fold-outs) shows how the public first reviled, then glorified Impressionism. Shrill ridicule and begrudging praise gave way to solid appreciation, triggered by comments such as this from Emile Zola: "His paintings speak whole volumes to me about energy and truth. . . . Here is a man among all these eunuchs." Novelist J. K. Huysmans found Monet's early canvases "sloppy" and "hasty," but the painter's friend, poet Stephane Mallarme, wrote, "I have never seen a boat poised more lightly on the water than in his pictures." Another supporter, Georges Clemenceau, praised the Water Lilies for daring to achieve the impossible. Critic Clement Greenberg defined Monet's enduring strength: "Impressionism was, and expressed, his innermost experience." Stuckey, curator at the National Gallery of Art, smoothly stitches together the commentaries to form a unique approach to understanding Monet. November 10
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Stuckey, curator of 19th-century European painting at the National Gallery of Art, has carefully amassed and selected for this monumental volume the criticism of Monet written during the Impressionist master's lifetime plus two modern-day interpretations by William Seitz and Clement Greenberg. And what critiques! Annotations (really literary vignettes) identify each entry's author and set the stage for the commentary, from A. Wolff (1876)``outspokenly hostile''to G. Clemenceau (1929)``Monet's eye was nothing less than the whole man.'' The intent of the book is not to analyze but to present all aspects of Monet's long career. Interviews with the painter himself and references to the pertinent reproductions of his work complete the book. There are 122 fine full-color plates (including gatefolds) and a lengthy chronology. For academic and other large art collections. Gloria K. Rensch, formerly with Vigo Cty. P.L., Terre Haute, Ind.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 387 pages
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing; 1st Ed(AsSuch) edition (December 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0861360141
• ISBN-13: 978-0517618240
• ASIN: 0517618249
• Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 10.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,501,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's Grrrreat!!, October 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Monet: A Retrospective (Hardcover)

I saw this book in my local bookstore and immediatly snatched it up! It got a TON of paintings done by Monet, most of them in color. Though the actual biography about him is slim, the articles by past painters, colleagues, and friends are wonderful. Be warned: It's a heafty book, but undoubtedly delightful!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good in parts, January 21, 2009

By 

Benjamin (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Monet a Retrospective (Hardcover)

The book opens with a chronology of about 15 pages and a short introduction. The remainder of the text comprises a vast array of contemporary reports and commentaries on Monet from news media and other sources by a numerous writers. These do make fascinating reading; the wide range of writers includes among others critics, philosophers and statesmen, and among these are some notable names such as Proust, Maupassant and Zola; the comments range from ridicule to praise. They run according the publishers, chronologically from 1865, but that is a very loose description for the sequence is far from consecutive. Usefully reference to colour plates is provided in the margin alongside the relevant text. The book includes an index.

It is illustrated throughout with 132 colour plates and 119 monochromes. The colour reproduction generally is acceptable, but there are a number of images that are noticeably dark with little detail evident in the darkest areas. The monochrome images are not so good; typical of poor quality offset-litho the images are too dark with large areas of solid black entirely lacking detail. The colour plates each occupy a page, although due to the book format some paintings may occupy no more than half the page. This problem has been overcome with a few of the very wide Water Lily paintings by employing fold out pages. A very wide range of Monet's work is covered.

Overall production does not impress, the presentation in some sections is crude, and it is badly let down by the quality of the monochrome images. It is a big and heavy book, and the large format does allow for many of Monet's paintings to be reproduced to a reasonable size; it is worth having for the colour reproductions and the interesting text.

13.25" x 9.75" (33.6 cm x 24.7 cm) Published 1985 ISBN 0883633019 Hardback

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Value With Over 100 Full-Color Plates, June 28, 2005

By 

G. Reid (Roseland, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Monet a Retrospective (Hardcover)

Enjoy Monet's greatest works with over 100 full-color plates. In addition to the vivid plates the text is overflowing with wonderful descriptions of his life and work.