Renoir

by Gilles Neret

Published 21 November 2019
Impressions of grandeur: The French Impressionist surveyed in depthBorn in Limoges, France, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841 1919) was a painter of life, love, and laughter. In rural landscapes, sun-drenched studies, and abundant female nudes, his oeuvre took the dappled touch of Impressionism into a new sensual realm.During the course of his career, Renoir assimilated and expressed numerous influences and styles. Early works, created in Paris, tended towards portraiture, and were heavily influenced by Delacroix, Courbet, and Degas. Later, he pioneered Impressionist traits alongside peers such as Pissaro and Monet with canvases including Bal du Moulin de la Galette and Luncheon of the Boating Party epitomizing the movement s plein air principles and scenes of bourgeois leisure. As Renoir s reputation and output grew, a sense of classicism began to pervade his paintings, further fueled by trips to Italy to study masterpieces by Titian and Raphael. In later works, he adopted much more statuesque aesthetics, particularly in relation to his abundant, beloved female models.In this appropriately jumbo edition is a selection of more than 500 works that best demonstrate Renoir s immense talent and historical importance.
With a complete chronology, bibliography, and index of works, as well as photos and sketches illustrating Renoir s life and work, TASCHEN s Renoir is the essential reference book for this painter of happiness and poet of love."

Erotica Universalis

by Gilles Neret

Published November 1994
ICONS Erotica 19th Century From Courbet to Gauguin Gilles N ret English/German/French ISBN 3-8228-5512-x Flexi-cover, 14 x 19,5 cm, 192 pp., c. 200 ills. US$ 9.99 | # 5.99 | DM 9,95 | FF 52,50 Pocket Book This is a collection of the best 19th century images from Erotica Universalis Volumes I and II. From Courbet to Gauguin and lots of others in between (known, unknown, and anonymous)- a plethora of delightfully naughty pictures!

Painter, sculptor, writer, and filmmaker, Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) was one of the century’s greatest exhibitionists and eccentrics—and was rewarded with fierce controversy wherever he went. He was one of the first to apply the insights of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis to the art of painting, approaching the subconscious with extraordinary sensitivity and imagination.

This publication presents the artist’s painted oeuvre. After many years of research, Robert Descharnes and Gilles Néret finally located the paintings of this highly prolific artist. Many of the works had been inaccessible for years—in fact so many that almost half the illustrations in this book had rarely been seen in public.


At the age of six, Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) wanted to be a cook. At the age of seven, he wanted to be Napoleon. “Since then,” he later said, “my ambition has steadily grown, and my megalomania with it. Now I want only to be Salvador Dalí, I have no greater wish.” Throughout his life, Dalí was out to become Dalí: that is, one of the most significant artists and eccentrics of the 20th century.

This weighty volume is the most complete study of Dalí’s painted works ever published. After years of research, Robert Descharnes and Gilles Néret located painted works by the master that had been inaccessible for years—so many, in fact, that almost half the featured illustrations appear in public for the first time in this book.

More than a catalogue raisonné, this book contextualizes Dalí’s oeuvre and its meanings by examining contemporary documents, from writings and drawings to material from other facets of his work, including ballet, cinema, fashion, advertising, and objets d’art.

The study is divided into two parts: the first examines Dalí’s beginnings as an unknown artist. We witness how the young Dalí deployed all the isms—Impressionism, Pointillism, Cubism, Fauvism, Purism and Futurism—with playful mastery, and how he would borrow from prevailing trends before ridiculing and abandoning them. The second part unveils the conclusions of Dalí’s lifelong inquiries, as well as the great legacy he left in works such as Tuna Fishing (1966/67) or Hallucinogenic Toreador (1970). It includes previously unpublished homages to Velázquez or Michelangelo, painted to the same end as the variations on past masters done by his contemporary, Picasso.

We discover how, motivated by the desire to tease out the secrets of great works and become a Velázquez of the mid-20th century, Dalí became Dalí.


Painter, sculptor, writer, and filmmaker, Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) was one of the century’s greatest exhibitionists and eccentrics—and was rewarded with fierce controversy wherever he went. He was one of the first to apply the insights of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis to the art of painting, approaching the subconscious with extraordinary sensitivity and imagination.

This publication presents the artist’s painted oeuvre. After many years of research, Robert Descharnes and Gilles Néret finally located the paintings of this highly prolific artist. Many of the works had been inaccessible for years—in fact so many that almost half the illustrations in this book had rarely been seen in public.