Colour library Series

Gustave Klimt (1862-1918) was one of the most brilliant artists of the Austrian avant-garde. Admired for his sensual images of women and for his powerful and original vision, he produced some of the most haunting and evocative images of all time, including The Kiss, Love and The Three Ages of Woman, all of which are included in this perfect introduction to the artist’s work.

Klimt started out as a decorator, opening a studio with his brother Ernst. Some of his most famous commissions were for murals, including the magnificent Beethoven Frieze, painted for the exhibition of Max Klinger’s statue of Beethoven, and the monumental ceiling paintings for the auditorium of Vienna University, which shocked a conservative public. A founder of Vienna Secession, the band of artists who resigned from the established art bodies to form their own group, Klimt became the principal painter of the Art Nouveau movement, painting glittering portraits of fashionable Viennese society as well as

Cézanne

by Catherine Dean

Published 18 August 1994

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) has been acclaimed by the twentieth century as the father of modern art. This superb volume surveys the life and work of an extraordinary painter, who trod a solitary and difficult path towards his goal of an art which would combine the best of the French classical tradition of structure with the best in contemporary realism. The results are some of the most beautiful, and most popular, paintings of our time.

Among the 48 full-page colour plates are examples of Cézanne's monumental landscapes, richly modelled figure groups, and marvellous still lifes, so remarkable for their geometric compositions and their stunning use of colour. Each plate is accompanied by a detailed commentary on the artist's intentions and method, and the illustrated introductory essay discusses the main events and themes of Cézanne's life and work.

Manet

by Catherine Dean

Published 12 August 1998

Edouard Manet (1832-83) was one of the greatest, as well as one of the most interesting, of nineteenth century French painters. Acute observation, an extraordinary skilful handling of paint and a feeling for exquisite harmonies of colour makes his work both vivid and enchanting. It is also of great significance in the story of European painting, since Manet, a pioneer in depicting modern life in a modern style, was a formative influence on the whole impressionist movement. Olympia and The Picnic are among the key works of the nineteenth century.

These, and many other crucial points – among them Manet’s personality, with its many contradictions - are fully discussed by John Richardson in his introductory essay, an abridged version of the brilliant text which was widely admired when it was first published in 1958 and which started a full-scale revival of Manet studies.

Richardson's classic text was first revised in 1982, with notes to the forty-eight colour plates by Kathleen Adler and comparative illustrations to emphasize the quality, variety and character of Manet’s work. This perfect introduction to the work of such an influential painter is now reissued in an attractive new design.