Chagall.

Cloth, facsimile signature on front board, 4to, colour plates. 95, [1] pp. From the blurb: "Raymond Cogniat approaches his subject in a new, personal light, analyzing him from several points of view: technique, body of work, and the great periods of his life. The author's analysis leads to a full understanding of Chagall's luminous art, which, though somewhat melancholy, is saturated with love and poetry, and, though superbly contemporary, is not part of any movement, and therefore is likely to endure. The author, giving his own reactions to the works he admires, offers the reader a kind of initiation, a way of directly confronting each picture by accepting Chagall's own state of consciousness as he created it. First, he includes biographical information, but only the events of Chagall's life that explain his work. Next, Cogniat points out that the essential thing is to accept a priori the painter's idealism, his conception of a world true to his own approach, and then one may appreciate the wonders he creates, in this way one derives maximum enjoyment from the works of the artist. The choice of illustrations presents a complete panorama of the artist's work. From the first paintings, dated from Vitebsk, to the ceiling of the Opera in Paris, all his periods and techniques are represented: oils and gouaches, watercolours and drawings, lithographs and engravings, ceramics, stained-glass windows, and theatre decoration. Many works are here reproduced in colour for the first time." Near Fine in Near Fine dustwrapper.…