Customer Reviews

My Italian Sketchbook (Sketchbooks)

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Florine Asch allows us to accompany her on a Grand Tour of Italy. She takes us along, at a leisurely pace, that does recall a time when travel was more about the journey than the destination. Dominique Fernandez, who writes the Introduction to "My Italian Sketchbook," tells us that "tourist" originally meant, "one who travels, not to arrive, but aimlessly, as the servant of beauty."

Ms. Asch's attachment to Italy is palpable in her glorious sketches, all executed in watercolor. Her elegant sketches, 100 of them, depict the known sites, and the scenes that are rarely seen by the hurried tourist. She captures a sunset view of Saint Peter's in Rome, the beauty of Lake Como, a Tuscan landscape, the medieval majesty of Sienna, the Renaissance glory of Firenze, the Duomo in Milan, a studio filled with Greek plaster figures, a horse and buggy by Rome's Trevi Fountain, the carnival in Venice, street scenes in Naples, a Sicilian piazza, and marketplace.

Florine Asch uniquely portrays the ordinary and extraordinary vistas, and views, of Italy. My tourist photographs never looked like this. A wonderful book to keep as a remembrance, or to give as a gift. Anyone who loves all things Italian, will love this book. I certainly do!

Length:: 0:17 Mins

My Italian Sketchbook is a travelogue made with watercolour paintings. The illustrations are drawn by Florine Asch for her Grand Tour of Italy. Included right at the start are two well written stories on the history of Grand Tour, and on Asch's work.

The Grand Tour was the traditional travel of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. You can read more about the Grand Tour on wikipedia.

Covered in the book are places such as Milan, Venice, Verona, Florence, Tuscany, Rome, Naples and Sicily. Captured in watercolour are the amazing architecture of Italian buildings, their people and way of life. The paintings are captioned with personal notes and sometimes with quotes from Asch's favourite books.

The hardcover is actually clothed cardboard with a white textured paper pasted over it for the cover art.

If you like this artistic style, also check out My Paris Sketchbook by Alain Bouldouyre.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I have loved Italy since I was a child, something about the people, the food, the great scenery, old, historic monuments, there is just so much to learn about and appreciate, and this wonderful gem of a sketchbook does just that. Florine Asch takes us on a Grand Tour of Italy which is brought to life by her amazing, beautiful, detailed watercolors - MIlan & the Lakes [also noteworthy are depictions of daily life like in the bustling markets], Verona, Venice, Florence, Rome [the Piazza Navona], the Bay of Naples & Sicily. It is a riot of color, a lush depiction of Italian life, and the beautiful rendering of the Italian countryside & cities. A wonderful addition to the Sketchbooks series [of which I am a collector].

Excellent service, prompt delivery, excellent conditon
as described, packaged well.
Would use again.

Usually, I simply rate items based on whether I like them or not, but Florine Asch's "My Italian Sketchbook" was worth the effort of a comment. I borrowed this book from the library and have now purchased this book because I was astounded by the beauty and volume of drawings in this Sketchbook.

The sketches are absolutely superb and nowhere close to being the rigid architecturally perfect "sketches" which I have seen in other books. Now I greatly respect the talent that it takes to do those other sketches but as a fellow watercolorist, I prefer the looser quality and nature of Ms. Asch's. Hopefully she has future holidays planned and thus future sketchbooks. As a side note, I would love to see the two sketchbooks relating to France (one in Paris and another in Alsace, I believe) of hers which seem to be very difficult to get here in the U.S. Highly recommend this book. It is beautiful and gives one a strong desire to travel!

Beautiful book. The artist makes even the most mundane object interesting. Inspiring for both the armchair traveler and aspiring artist. This is one fo the best in the "My X Sketchbook" series.

The quality of sketches in this book is mediocre at best. Colors are also washed out.