Customer Reviews

Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of Paintings

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For such a large size book it is very disappointing that there are so few colour images and such as are printed are not on the scale of size that would let the reader revel in the finer detail of Van Dyck's work. It is understandable that the catalogue section of the book was Black & White for reasons of economy, but the preceding pages could have benefited from colour close-ups and full page plates. The book may be useful for a scholar, but it will remain to other books to exemplify the genius of Van Dyck. There is a more affordable and enjoyable option in Christopher Brown's book "Anthony Van Dyck" published by Rizzoli in 1999.

Van Dyck is one of my favorite painters and I was looking forward to this updated catalogue raisonne as the previous one published in the mid 80's had a a mere 100 paintings reproduced in color.I was prepared to spend a large sum of money so I could have access to most of his paintings reproduced in color.This book had the potential to be one of tha great art books.It is beautifully laid out into four different periods and the color reproductions are of a high standard and the majority are a good size.The major problem with the book is that a paltry 190 out of 900 paintings are reproduced in color.In this era,a catalogue raisonne should have the majority of works in color(take a look at the Velazquez,Soutine,Rothko,Newman and O'Keeffe),B/W reproductions aren't worth a glance.I'm now having second thoughts about buying this even at Amazon's reduced price($135).A major disappointment.