Very handy resource, 29 Aug 2008
I purchased this volume for a trip with a school party (GCSE & A level) that included the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre.

The book, although weighty, is ideally shaped to live in a handbag, manbag, or even a roomy pocket (although in that case, get the Louvre one as well and balance yourself so as not to look like Quasimodo...).

The pictures are clear, the notes are superb, and I certainly wouldn't have been without it. Hundreds of pictures, hundreds of pages. All for £7 or so. Brilliant.

Very handy resource, 29 Aug 2008
I purchased this volume for a trip with a school party (GCSE & A level) that included the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre.

The book, although weighty, is ideally shaped to live in a handbag, manbag, or even a roomy pocket (although in that case, get the Louvre one as well and balance yourself so as not to look like Quasimodo...).

The pictures are clear, the notes are superb, and I certainly wouldn't have been without it. Hundreds of pictures, hundreds of pages. All for £7 or so. Brilliant.

An excellent book both for reference and for pleasure, 23 Feb 1999
A well produced book with many good quality colour illustrations of the Louvre collection. Organised into chapters by date starting with early gothic works around 1200. Thorough coverage of the renaissance period includes the Louvres famous works by Leonardo Da Vinci, Raffael and Caravaggio. As expected good coverage of French artists including Poussin and Delacroix although Flemish, English and German artists are also well represented. The only criticism is that the commentaries about each artist and many of the paintings are brief and superficial, but this is a minor quibble with what is without doubt a fabulous book for any fine art lover.

Very handy resource, 29 Aug 2008
I purchased this volume for a trip with a school party (GCSE & A level) that included the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre.

The book, although weighty, is ideally shaped to live in a handbag, manbag, or even a roomy pocket (although in that case, get the Louvre one as well and balance yourself so as not to look like Quasimodo...).

The pictures are clear, the notes are superb, and I certainly wouldn't have been without it. Hundreds of pictures, hundreds of pages. All for £7 or so. Brilliant.

An excellent book both for reference and for pleasure, 23 Feb 1999
A well produced book with many good quality colour illustrations of the Louvre collection. Organised into chapters by date starting with early gothic works around 1200. Thorough coverage of the renaissance period includes the Louvres famous works by Leonardo Da Vinci, Raffael and Caravaggio. As expected good coverage of French artists including Poussin and Delacroix although Flemish, English and German artists are also well represented. The only criticism is that the commentaries about each artist and many of the paintings are brief and superficial, but this is a minor quibble with what is without doubt a fabulous book for any fine art lover.

1001 Paintings of the Louvre From Antiquity to the Nineenth Century, 10 Jul 2008
This is without a doubt an excellent book, and it is worth every penny.

The title is a bit misleading because the book actually features 1017 works and not 1001.

I did find that it has a few minor translation errors (from French to English) in the main bodies of text that introduce each chapter.

The pictures could be a bit bigger (on average they are the size of a postcard), but that really doesn't over shadow the joy to look at them.

Overall though it is a great book, and it is also a great introduction to the painting collection of the Louvre.

A VOLUME TO TREASURE, 13 Jun 2006

If a trip to Paris including a day at what is arguably the most famous museum in the world isn't in your plans, this gorgeous volume is an excellent armchair visit. Further, it is a visit you can make whenever you wish with no walking, standing or climbing stairs involved!

Edited by Vincent Pomarede and featuring gorgeous photographs (many full page) by Erich Lessing this volume is as the Preface states "a dazzling printed gallery of works selected both to please and instruct." The volume does, of course, contain many well-known and loved masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa and La Tour's The Adoration of the Shepherds, in addition it also holds lesser known paintings that merit our attention.

Thumbnail captions by various curators accompany each painting often drawing the eye to an important attribute of the work or placing it in appropriate context with other artists and periods. Although I've used "painting" in its broadest term, also included are remarkable illuminated manuscripts, studies, stained glass, pottery, furniture and tableware.

It is tantamount to impossible to describe the wealth of beauty housed in the Louvre and words are also inadequate to described the wonders found in the 576 pages of this exquisite volume. It is a rare book, one that will be enjoyed over and over again as well as by generations to come.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke

Very handy resource, 29 Aug 2008
I purchased this volume for a trip with a school party (GCSE & A level) that included the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre.

The book, although weighty, is ideally shaped to live in a handbag, manbag, or even a roomy pocket (although in that case, get the Louvre one as well and balance yourself so as not to look like Quasimodo...).

The pictures are clear, the notes are superb, and I certainly wouldn't have been without it. Hundreds of pictures, hundreds of pages. All for £7 or so. Brilliant.

An excellent book both for reference and for pleasure, 23 Feb 1999
A well produced book with many good quality colour illustrations of the Louvre collection. Organised into chapters by date starting with early gothic works around 1200. Thorough coverage of the renaissance period includes the Louvres famous works by Leonardo Da Vinci, Raffael and Caravaggio. As expected good coverage of French artists including Poussin and Delacroix although Flemish, English and German artists are also well represented. The only criticism is that the commentaries about each artist and many of the paintings are brief and superficial, but this is a minor quibble with what is without doubt a fabulous book for any fine art lover.

1001 Paintings of the Louvre From Antiquity to the Nineenth Century, 10 Jul 2008
This is without a doubt an excellent book, and it is worth every penny.

The title is a bit misleading because the book actually features 1017 works and not 1001.

I did find that it has a few minor translation errors (from French to English) in the main bodies of text that introduce each chapter.

The pictures could be a bit bigger (on average they are the size of a postcard), but that really doesn't over shadow the joy to look at them.

Overall though it is a great book, and it is also a great introduction to the painting collection of the Louvre.

A VOLUME TO TREASURE, 13 Jun 2006

If a trip to Paris including a day at what is arguably the most famous museum in the world isn't in your plans, this gorgeous volume is an excellent armchair visit. Further, it is a visit you can make whenever you wish with no walking, standing or climbing stairs involved!

Edited by Vincent Pomarede and featuring gorgeous photographs (many full page) by Erich Lessing this volume is as the Preface states "a dazzling printed gallery of works selected both to please and instruct." The volume does, of course, contain many well-known and loved masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa and La Tour's The Adoration of the Shepherds, in addition it also holds lesser known paintings that merit our attention.

Thumbnail captions by various curators accompany each painting often drawing the eye to an important attribute of the work or placing it in appropriate context with other artists and periods. Although I've used "painting" in its broadest term, also included are remarkable illuminated manuscripts, studies, stained glass, pottery, furniture and tableware.

It is tantamount to impossible to describe the wealth of beauty housed in the Louvre and words are also inadequate to described the wonders found in the 576 pages of this exquisite volume. It is a rare book, one that will be enjoyed over and over again as well as by generations to come.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke

Very handy resource, 29 Aug 2008
I purchased this volume for a trip with a school party (GCSE & A level) that included the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre.

The book, although weighty, is ideally shaped to live in a handbag, manbag, or even a roomy pocket (although in that case, get the Louvre one as well and balance yourself so as not to look like Quasimodo...).

The pictures are clear, the notes are superb, and I certainly wouldn't have been without it. Hundreds of pictures, hundreds of pages. All for £7 or so. Brilliant.