A beautiful book in its own right and a marvelous companion to Proust's novel, especially for those of us with a minimal knowledge of paintings and painters.

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lschiff | 4 andere besprekingen | Sep 24, 2023 |

Paintings in Proust: A Visual Companion to 'In… door Eric Karpeles

Very clever idea. Indispensable, now, really. If Proust said someone resembled the third guy to Jesus' left in a work by Giotto, I just nodded and moved on, now, here he is. Beautifully printed. ...also acts as an interesting summary of the work, since an introductory sentence and the relevant quote are included, - [you almost never see the rare comma dash] from the graphic arts point of view.

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markm2315 | 4 andere besprekingen | Jul 1, 2023 |

Almost Nothing: The 20th-Century Art and Life of… door Eric Karpeles

Karpeles book is almost unclassifiable. It melds biography with intellectual and cultural history, but is not complete without a personal memoir aspect.That it works well in all of these areas speaks well for both the author and the subject. I learned a lot about the world of art and the people in it from this book.

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jwhenderson | 1 andere bespreking | Mar 10, 2022 |

Paintings in Proust: A Visual Companion to In… door Eric Karpeles

This is one of the best companion books to read and keep by your side as you journey through Proust's magnificent In Search of Lost Time. The author opens with an introductory essay that explains how he has "attempted to reassemble in a single volume the fleeting paintings weaving in and out of a moving narrative, to offer for the first time to the reader of In Search of Lost Time 'a comprehensive and continuous picture'."

To this end he combines color plates for all of the art referenced in the novel along with lucid contextual commentary and relevant quotations from the novel. When a specific work of art is not mentioned he has chosen a representative piece to complement the passage from the novel. The presentation of art works from artists as disparate as Manet and Michelangelo, Delacroix and Degas, and many others is a feast for the reader's eyes.

The result of his comprehensive work is a successful melding of art with literature that will please both those who are encountering Proust for the first time and those who know and love his literary masterpiece.… (meer)