Antoine's Alphabet: Watteau and His World

Antoine's Alphabet: Watteau and His World

Antoine Watteau, one of the most mysterious painters who ever lived, is the inspiration for this delightful investigation of the tangled relationship between art and life. Weaving together historical fact and personal reflections, the influential art critic Jed Perl reconstructs the amazing story of this pioneering bohemian artist who, although he died in 1721, when he was only thirty-six, has influenced innumerable painters and writers in the centuries sinceâ€”and whose work continues to deepen our understanding of the place that love, friendship, and pleasure have in our daily lives.

Perl creates an astonishing experience by gathering his reflections on this â€œmaster of silken surfaces and elusive emotionsâ€ in the form of an alphabetâ€”a fairy tale for adultsâ€”giving us a new way to think about art. This brilliant collage of a book is a hunt for the treasure of Watteauâ€™s life and vision that encompasses the glamour and intrigue of eighteenth-century Paris, the riotous history of Harlequin and Pierrot, and the work of such modern giants as CÃ©zanne, Picasso, and Samuel Beckett.

By turns somber and beguiling, analytical and impressionistic, Antoineâ€™s Alphabet reaffirms the contemporary relevance of the greatest of all painters of young love and imperishable dreams. It is a book to savor, to share, to return to again and again.

From the Hardcover edition.
Country USA
Brand Vintage
Manufacturer Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Binding Paperback
Color Grey
ReleaseDate 2009-09-15
UnitCount 1
Format Illustrated
EANs 9780307385949

Country	USA
Brand	Vintage
Manufacturer	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Binding	Paperback
Color	Grey
ReleaseDate	2009-09-15
UnitCount	1
Format	Illustrated
EANs	9780307385949

Antoine's Alphabet: Watteau and His World

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