L'Oeuvre Gravé de Gauguin. Catalogue Raisonné. (Paul Gauguin's Graphic Work)
Category: Books,Reference,Foreign Language Study & Reference
L'Oeuvre Gravé de Gauguin. Catalogue Raisonné. (Paul Gauguin's Graphic Work) Details
Language Notes Text: French Read more
Reviews
At the time this 10.5" x 8.25" hardcover book with dust jacket in approx. 150 pps. was published, 1980, there really wasn't a public internet and the art world depended upon books such as this to account for and catalog the artworks of artists for use as standard references. This is a really well-made book, printed in USA on high quality paper and published by Alan Wofsy Fine Arts of San Francisco but the funny thing is, it is entirely in the French. There is no translation, but certainly the vast majority of art dealers and collectors interested in the book are more likely to be familiar with the English language. It just seems like a no-brainer that at least a rudimentary translation would have been attempted here.I believe this book is an updated version of a book first published in 1927 that was edited by Floury. As such, it would have become the new standard reference. As such, one would also expect that the illustrations contained in this book would have been in color: They are not!Even though the descriptions list many of these prints to have been executed in color, every reproduction contained herein is in B&W. There also is not much discussion accompanying each print, which is entirely acceptable in a catalog raisonne such as this, but one suspects that much trenchant information was left out.There is a later catalog raisonne with a different editor that is now the standard reference. Problem is that it costs quite a bit more than this book, which is why I chose this one.I'm not entirely unhappy with this book. It is more than adequate for my casual interest in the subject. If I become more serious about acquiring prints by Gauguin, I'm afraid that it will be necessary to acquire the later, more extensive, more costly book by Elizabeth Mongan. For now, this book is okay. It could have been so much better though.
