I recently visited Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature, on view at the Denver Art Museum through February 2, 2020. It’s a beautiful exhibition and reminded me, oddly enough, of a book.
I loved art as a child and for my 11th birthday, friends of my father’s gave me my first art history book, “Paris in Our Time” by Albert Skira. It covers Impressionism, and other paintings influenced by the city of Paris, up to about 1950…
“Present day Paris has not been molded by the centuries alone; the nuances of its colors and the mellow light that plays upon its monuments owe something of their delicacy or intensity to the artists who have depicted them. Impressionists, Divisionists, Fauves and visionaries of the contemporary School of Paris reveal a city forever new. With 72 color plates.”
The now slightly-battered book that I received on my eleventh birthday…
I thought it was the most wonderful grown-up gift. Although much of the text was over my head, I loved looking through it. Each image of a painting was tipped into the book so it was a slow, reverent experience to leaf through the pages. We lived in Des Moines, Iowa at the time and I’d never seen anything like these paintings in real life. A treasure, I kept the book in a special place and perused it regularly.
Some of the Monet plates
The gift of that book indicated that someone outside of my immediate family took my interest in art seriously. That knowledge was of more significance than the gift of the book itself. With thanks to all who have encouraged me over the years, but especially to the Brocks today, for this little book that makes me wax nostalgic.
Never hesitate to give someone a book that is beyond them; they might just grow into it!
Another positive: Paris in Our Time includes several works by women which is more than I can say for my Janson’s History of Art in college (which included zero)!
