Hourticq, Louis
Bibliothèque Omnium. Encyclopédie des Beaux-Arts. Architecture sculpture peinture arts décoratifs.
(Paris), Librairie Hachette (1925).
Full Description
Large 4to. 2 vols. (4) + 332pp ; (4) + 334pp ; with 10 colour plates, 120 photo plates, and 1600 text ills. Contemporary cloth, orig printed wrappers bound in. From the library of Jules Brunfaut.
Intended for reading by the wider public, but quite a serious publishing venture, incorporating a dictionary of the fine arts, a general history of art, and illustrations of notable buildings, pictures and sculptures. The general history of art is written by the volume’s principal author, Louis Hourticq, a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and both it and the biographical entries on individuals are interesting as evidence for what was contemporary orthodoxy in the teaching of the arts in France, Rodin being the most recent creative artist discussed in any detail and nothing substantial being said about Art Nouveau or Cubism or any other modern phenomenon.