Customer Reviews

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes Set

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I knew within 10 minutes of opening this set, that hoping for an incredible coffee table sized art book for Chavannes was a mistake. For the cost, I imagined there would be plenty of full color images. As I flipped through in growing annoyance, I saw that 80% of the pictures are in black and white. Out of over 700 pages across 2 volumes, the vast majority is text and black and white images. I figured in the year 2010 the black and white art book was a thing of the past.

It is 2 volume set, beautifully packaged in a glossy box. But the first volume is supposed to be an overview of the artist, and of its nearly 300 pages, 130 are the appendix and notes. 90% is just text and a few color images. Not much. The 2nd volume is the catalog raisonne of most of his works and this was mostly black and white with page after page of text. I can go on fliker dot com and see people's vacation pics from Europe to see what is included in these 2 books. The few color images are photos of various walls/ apses that have Chavannes' paintings on them. I am very disappointed. Apparently only a serious scholar would want or need an art book that has very little art in color and is mostly scholarly research.

This is undoubtedly the definitive book about this great and not yet fully appreciated artist. Art historian Aimee Brown Price has devoted much of her stellar career to this, her favorite painter and his works. This book is the culmination of her years of study of and devotion to his genius and is not to be missed!