Customer Reviews

Marie Adrien Persac: Louisiana Artist

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Rarely does a comprehesive book cover the known work of an artist and open and close the issue. Persac is little known outside of Louisiana. He is a major early artist who documents Louisiana life in the late pre Civil War era. Kudos to the authors, sepecially Prof. Bacot. Thank you for this book.

Persac was uniquely placed to capture the essence of a lifestyle in Louisiana that would be destroyed by the physical, economic,and social changes that were the consequences of the American civil war. This book provides a glimpse at a number of privately held paintings, commissioned by the owners of antebellum estates in Louisiana, that would otherwise never be visible to the student or historian. It is a lovely addition to our regional history collection.

Amongst many volumes related to Louisiana architecture this book is without question a landmark production. For years I had hoped that someone would write a book on Persac's many works of plantation landscapes and was absolutely thrilled to find this stunning compilation. It is a masterwork of fascinating and descriptive text combined with large full-color images of the gouache works. The paintings are beautiful works of art and more importantly highly detailed records of the way these plantations looked in the early nineteenth century. Many of the depicted houses no longer exist and are recorded only in these images while some still stand and show how excruciatingly detailed and highly accurate Persac's paintings are. For the historic architecture reader this book will be endlessly fascinating, for those focused on southern architecture and history it is utterly indispensable.