Monet's Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism

Winward / W. H. Smith, London, 1978. Hardcover. Good Condition/Good. This book is based on the 1978 exhibition, 'Monet's Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism', sponsored and exhibited by the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What makes this volume so interesting and attractive is the knowledgeable but understandable essay by Daniel Wildenstein, 1917-2001, art dealer and author of the five-volume catalogue raisonné of the work of Monet published between 1976-92. Over the last four decades of his long life Monet lived in his country house Giverny, extending and laying out the gardens and paths, building trellises and bridges, and - most famously - creating the water-lily ponds to create the subjects for his paintings and, in particular, his series paintings. Monet designed the garden, the work being carried out by a team of professional gardeners. In this book, 81 of the artist's Giverny paintings are reproduced, some as pull-outs, to trace his development from Impressionism to the cusp of Abstraction. The works range from 1883, the year of his arrival, when he recorded the river valley, the fields and neighbouring villages, all within a 2 mile radius of his home (a map shows these locations), through which he became more interested in the tonal harmonies associated with changes of season, weather conditions and times of the day. Between 1888-91 he painted his first series of "Haystacks" in which the work, not the individual painting was key. The book contains an illustrated Chronology, cross referenced to the works reproduced, and a Selected Bibliography which has, of course, been superceded by well over three decades of research, exhibitions and catalogues. It is Wildenstein's knowledge of the painter's work and his declining visual acuity, the photographs and the extremely good colour reproductions that is most important. The front cover shows a detail from "The Garden Path", 1900. 181 pages. Dust Jacket price-clipped. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: 2-3 kilos. Category: Art; Art & Design; ISBN: 071120019X. ISBN/EAN: 9780711200197. Inventory No: 268611.. 9780711200197 This book is extra heavy, and may involve extra shipping charges to some countries.