Delacroix Pastels (Hardcover)

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From Publishers Weekly

Although Eugene Delacroix never exhibited his pastels and regarded them mainly as a private activity, the French Romantic artist exploited pastel for his own creative ends, producing innovative chromatic and textural effects, reveling in Oriental exotica and exploring tonalities of light and color. The 60 pastels reproduced in color in this attractive album and dating from the 1820s through the 1860s embrace the full range of his subject matter--portraits, nudes, North African scenes, tigers in the wild, nature studies, ancient Greek history, mythological and religious scenes as well as preliminary studies for The Death of Sardanapalus and Women of Algiers in Their Apartment. In contrast to his highly dramatic, often violent oils, his pastels reveal his interest in being true to nature, in mastering the structure and tints of skies, flowers, clouds, faces. Professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, Johnson provides commentaries on the plates plus an informal biographical sketch of the impulsive artist, who held a deeply pessimistic view of the human condition.

Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

These are 60 colour reproductions of Delacroix pastels. Delacroix, a leader of the French Romantic movement in painting, was also a great colourist. The pastels are too fragile to exhibit, but seen as a group, they not only provide pleasure, but also offer insight into Delacroix' work. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 191 pages
• Publisher: George Braziller (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807613959
• ISBN-13: 978-0807613955
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 9.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,449,491 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars focus on pastels, July 1, 2009

By	Ted Byrd - See all my reviews

This coffee-table sized, but somewhat slim, volume is not a definitive study of Delacroix' art nor is it meant to be. The focus is on his pastels, where the medium of application is crayon or chalk-like sticks in which the pigment is embedded, rather than oils or watercolor. This medium results in brighter tones than oil painting. Delacroix made pastels both as preparatory studies and after-the-fact versions of his oil paintings. Several of his more famous oil paintings are shown with pastel sketches which he made as preparatory studies. While this is not intended to be a comprehensive examination of Delacroix, there is much interesting information about the artist's life as well as his work. It could serve as either an introduction to the larger work of Delacroix or as a complement to that larger work for someone already familiar with it.