The Arts of the French Book, 1900-1965 : Ilustrated Books of the School of Paris

Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas, first edition, 1967. Printed wrappers, square 4to,. 119, [1] pp, plates, ills. Contents include: Introduction; 1800-1900: Nineteenth-Century Forerunners; 1900-1920: Great Publishers-Vollard and Kahnweiler; 1920-1940: Supremacy of the School of Paris; 1940-1965: Color Explosion and New Graphic Techniques; General Bibliography; Artist Index and Bibliography; Author Index. Publisher Index. Printer Index. Binder Index. From the introduction: "This is a selective exhibition of "great books," beaux livres, illustrated books by modern old masters and modern new masters, displaying the creative vitality of the arts of the French book in our century as centered in the School of Paris. Beaux livres are a far cry from our text books and trade books which, though often handsomely designed, are commercially and mechanically mass-produced to serve an essentially functional and didactic purpose. Neither are these the art of the professional book illustrator, many of whom, like Doré and Grandville in the nineteenth century, skillfully enlivened the text pages of the classics with illustrations of compelling strength, wit and imagination, but whose more limited aim was to translate into wood-engraving or etching the pictorial image of a pen drawing or painting. Rather are we concerned here with the broader dynamic of the artist's contribution to the book, what the French call the livre de peintre, the book of the painter. In the modern art of the book France has led the way, and the great flowering of this art in the twentieth century has been under her leadership. Her unique contribution has been the livre de peintre, the book in which the artist creates something that is not merely decorative illustration, but an important graphic statement in its own right. The illustration is not reproduced from an artist's drawing, but executed by his own hand, and printed by him directly or under his close supervision in an original print medium - woodcut, engraving, etching or lithography - and in a limited edition. Name on front free endpaper, wrappers somewhat browned, otherwise Very Good.