Women of Paris in Pictures: Paintings, Pastels, Prints and Drawings: Women in the Collections of the Petit Palais

by Quentin Blake

Quentin Blake is one of the best-known — and best-selling — illustrators in the world. Here he selects 60 diverse images of Parisian women and introduces them to young readers in a delightfully personal and sharply observant style. Organized into broad themes — work and leisure, town and country, family and society, theatre and portraiture — the book uses lively text and witty cartoons to explore French life and art and the mystery of French womanhood in the 19th and 20th centuries. Images by major painters such as Courbet, Renoir, Degas, and Cassatt are featured, alongside unfamiliar works by lesser-known masters.

80 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2005

About the author

Sir Quentin Saxby Blake is an English cartoonist, caricaturist, illustrator and children's writer. He has illustrated over 300 books, including 18 written by Roald Dahl, which are among his most popular works. For his lasting contribution as a children's illustrator he won the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2002, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books. From 1999 to 2001, he was the inaugural British Children's Laureate. He is a patron of the Association of Illustrators.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed how the paintings were seperated in to sections followed by a narrative at the end of each section; due to this organization and flow, it encourages the user to take the time to appreciate the art first and then learn the art's story.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun little book. It has a number of interesting paintings that I hadn't seen before. It's a little light on interpretation and discussion, though.