The Art of the French Illustrated Book, 1700 to 1914. [ Two volumes bound as one ]

Pierpont Morgan Library in association with Dover Publications, New York, 1986 slightly altered reprint in one volume of the 1982 two-volume first edition. 2 vols in 1, laminated illustrated wrappers, 4to, 29 cm,. xxxii, 557 pp, 633 black-and-white ills. From the blurb: "In France, the illustrated book has enjoyed a tradition of excellence unsurpassed by any other nation. Since its inception at the beginning of the 18th century, the genre has been consistently dominated by the sophisticated design and superb quality of French art from the Rococo illustrations of Jean-Baptiste Oudry to the livres de peintres of Picasso and Pissarro m the early 20th century. This beautifully designed and thoroughly researched volume is the most comprehensive study of French book illustration ever completed - in French or in English. Originally published in a two-volume limited edition by The Pierpont Morgan Library, it contains superb reproductions of over 630 masterful illustrations spanning over two centuries of art, from 1700 up to the outbreak of World War I. More than 100 artists are represented in styles ranging from High Rococo to 20th-century Symbolism, such as Philippe d'Orléans, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Eugène Delacroix, Honoré Daumier, Gustave Doré, J.-J. Grandville, Edouard Manet, Alphonse Mucha, Odilon Redon, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso and Camille Pissarro. Dr. Gordon N. Ray, noted scholar and collector, has provided a detailed, well-documented text, including complete bibliographic information for each book represented: title, author, publisher, date, number and type of illustrations, page size, binding, and much more. The various techniques of production - wood and copper engraving, etching, lithography, etc. - are expertly analyzed, as is the evolution of style in works from each major period: Rococo, the Age of Revolution, the Napoleonic era, the Restoration, Romanticism, Art Nouveau and the Belle Epoque. Minor wear to lower edge of front wrapper, otherwise Very Good.