From Library Journal
Beautifully illustrated, yet unusual in scope, this volume is a study of contrasts. Wittmer explores the works of French Impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte by highlighting the artist's love of gardens. The text is a delightful mixture of historic photographs, landscape plans, and a history of Yerres and the family estate, where the artist spent his childhood and early career. Quotations from Louis Audot's 1859 Treatise on the Composition and Ornamentation of Gardens and other period documents, which are used extensively to evoke a leisurely 19th- century tone, are sometimes confusing. However, the main focus is an explorative study of artistic themes and compositions in the form of an extensive, hypothetical walking tour of the estate and the sites of Caillebotte's pre-1879 known works. Also included is a chronology of the artist's life. This eclectic work would be a worthy addition to collections focusing on the decorative arts.
- Stephen Allan Patrick, East Tennessee State Univ. Lib., Johnson City
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Stephen Allan Patrick, East Tennessee State Univ. Lib., Johnson City
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
