The Musée du Louvre boasts an exceptional collection of 17th- and 18th-century European pastels. Due to their fragility, there have been scant opportunities to view and learn from these spectacular artworks. This in-depth examination of the collection, reproduced here for the first time in color, delves into their history and how they were created. Produced primarily during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI, the works--whose beautiful delicacy has been likened to the powder covering the wings of a butterfly--offer insights into society during the period of the Enlightenment. Featured artists include Rosalba Carriera, Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, Jean Étienne Liotard, Jean-Marc Nattier, and Élisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun, as well as lesser-known masters such as Marie-Suzanne Giroust, Adélaïde Labille-Guirard, Joseph Bose, and Joseph Ducreux. Distributed for Editions Hazan, Paris Exhibition Schedule: Musée du Louvre, Paris (06/07/18-09/10/18)

This volume gathers together all the extant pastels of Eugene Delacroix (1798-1862), the leader of the French Romantic movement in painting, the greatest colorist and the most versatile master of the first half of the nineteenth century. These beautiful pastels, housed in collections from London to Los Angeles to Cairo, are rarely exhibited due to their fragility. Published here as a group for the first time in full color, they provide sheer visual delight as well as enormous insight into Delacroix's endlessly inventive working methods. In his comprehensive introduction, Lee Johnson discusses Delacroix's interest in the medium of pastel and its place in his oeuvre as a whole, from the first reference to the technique in one of his school exercise books through his last known pastel, a finely wrought, signed version of one of his favorite compositions, "The Education of Achilles", which he presented to George Sand in 1862. Professor Johnson then treats the pastels in groups, such as studies for paintings, scenes from literature and mythology, North African scenes, and landscapes, flowers, and sky studies; in each case, he includes a full description and provenance of the work.

THE HAMMOCK: A novel based on the true story of French painter James Tissot portrays ten remarkable years in the life of James Tissot (1836-1902), who rebuilt - and then lost - his reputation in London. THE HAMMOCK is a psychological portrait, exploring the forces that unwound the career of this complex man. Based on contemporary sources, the novel brings Tissot's world alive in a story of war, art, Society glamour, love, scandal, and tragedy.

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842) was one of the finest eighteenth-century french painters and among the most important women artists of all time. Celebrated for her expressive portraits of French royalty and aristocracy, and especially of her patron Marie Antoinette, Vigée Le Brun exemplified success and resourcefulness in an age when women were rarely allowed either. Because of her close association with the queen Vigée Le Brun was forced to flee France during the French Revolution. For twelve years she traveled throughout Europe, painting noble sitters in the courts of Naples, Russia, Austria, and Prussia. She returned to France in 1802, under the reign of Emperor Napoleon I, where her creativity continued unabated. This handsome volume details Vigée Le Brun's story, portraying a talented artist who nimbly negotiated a shifting political and geographic landscape. Essays by international scholars address the ease with which this self-taught artist worked with monarchs, the nobility, court officials and luminaries of arts and letters, many of whom attended her famous salons. The position of women artists in Europe and at the Salons of the period is also explored, as are the challenges faced by Vigée Le Brun during her exile. The ninety paintings and pastels included in this volume attest to Vigée Le Brun's superb sense of color and expression. They include exquisite depictions of counts and countesses, princes and princesses alongside mothers and children, including the artist herself and her beloved daughter, Julie. A chronology of the life of Vigée Le Brun and a map of her travels accompany the text, elucidating the peregrinations of this remarkable, independent painter.

Katalog towarzyszący wystawom w: Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais w Paryżu, 9 luty - 16 maj 1988; National Galery of Canada w Ottawie, 16 czerwiec - 28 sierpień 1988; Metropolitan Museum of Art w Nowym Jorku, 27 wrzesień - 8 styczeń 1989.

Artist and designer Marin Montagut takes readers inside twenty of his favorite quintessentially Parisian locations, seemingly untouched by time, that provide rich creative inspiration. Discover the studios and shops where artisans hand­craft and sell exquisite items on-site in charming Parisian locations where the skill has been passed on for decades—or centuries—of continuous operation. These often-hidden gems provide unique details that will inspire designers, artists, and creatives of all stripes. To source the unique elements that can define the character of a room, clients—such as the Metro­politan Museum—have ordered custom decorative curtain tassels from Passementerie Verrier since 1753. A visit to Boiseries Féau can transform even the humblest apartment into a château interior with a restored carved door or elaborate molding. A la Providence and its array of hardware and fittings from every decorative period is a home renovator’s heaven. For the artist—the finest supplies and the dreamiest ateliers are peppered through the capital. Degas’s graceful dancers were drawn with pigments from the Maison du Pastel, which has hand-rolled a mesmer­izing palette of colors according to their secret trademarked formula since 1720. Fashion designers have chosen from the thousands of hat trimmings, buttons, ribbons, and sumptuous fabrics in stock at Ultramod since 1832. Revel in the city’s artisanal traditions; this book is a vibrant source of inspiration in twenty quaint, time­less spaces.

On August 21, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci’s most celebrated painting vanished from the Louvre. The prime suspects were as shocking as the crime: Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire, young provocateurs of a new art. The sensational disappearing act captured the world’s imagination. Crowds stood in line to view the empty space on the museum wall. Thousands more waited, as concerned as if Mona Lisa were a missing person, for news of the lost painting. Almost a century later, questions still linger: Who really pinched Mona Lisa, and why? Part love story, part mystery, Vanished Smile reopens the puzzling case that transformed a Renaissance portrait into the most enduring icon of all time.

The Life and Work of Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757): The Queen of Pastel is the first extensive biographical narrative in English of Rosalba Carriera. It is also the first scholarly investigation of the external and internal factors that helped to create this female painter's unique career in eighteenth-century Europe. It documents the difficulties, complications, and consequences that arose then -- and can also arise today -- when a woman decides to become an independent artist. This book contributes a new, in-depth analysis of the interplay between society's expectations, generally accepted codices for gendered behaviour, and one single female painter's astute strategies for achieving success, as well as autonomy in her professional life as a famed artist. Some of the questions that the author raises are: How did Carriera manage to build up her career? How did she run her business and organize her own workshop? What kind of artist was Carriera? Finally, what do her self-portraits reveal in terms of self-enactment and possibly autobiographical turning points?