Staff Picks
Van Gogh and His Inspirations: Paris
- Chantal W.
- Friday, October 04, 2019
Collection
Check out this list of companion titles for the Columbia Museum of Art's upcoming exhibition: Van Gogh and His Inspirations (October 4, 2019 - January 12, 2020).
This list includes both books about Van Gogh, titles that inspired the artist and title inspired by the artist, setting and time period.
Moulin Rouge
Published in 2004
"As a dwarf, Toulouse-Lautrec believes he's too ugly to ever fall in love. So he loses himself in painting ... and cognac. A fixture at Paris' infamous turn-of-the-century Moulin Rouge nightclub, Lautrec meets a girl from the street ... who breaks his heart"--Container.
Moulin Rouge!
Published in 2001
Christian is an idealistic and impoverished young writer who, newly arrived in Montmartre, is haphazardly inducted into a circle of young bohemians led by Toulouse-Lautrec. A comedy of mistaken identities ensues, quickly enmeshing the young poet in a love triangle involving the unobtainable and consumptive Satine, queen courtesan of the Moulin Rouge, and the foppish Duke of Roxbury, his villainous rival for her affections.
The Post-impressionists. Van Gogh
Published in 2006
Examines the life and work of van Gogh, featuring expert commentary and location footage.
Vincent Van Gogh
A Life Devoted to Art
Published in 2017
This documentary investigates the complete story of Van Gogh’s life and work: from his childhood in Brabant, through his laborious years of apprenticeship in Nuenen and artistic coming-of-age in Paris to the exhilarating peak of his career in the south of France. This fi lm contains unique footage of the places in Europe where Van Gogh lived and worked: in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Experts at the Van Gogh Museum provide insight into Vincent’s sources of inspiration and use his letters to show how he struggled to become a truly modern artist. The documentary contains all of the artist’s masterpieces as well as numerous lesser-known paintings and sketches.
From Monet to Van Gogh a History of Impressionism
Published in 2002
"A major focus will be on the key painters of the Impressionist Movement: Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, Berthe Morisot, Gustave Caillebotte, Mary Cassatt, and Edgar Degas. We will also look at those artists whose work came out of the Impressionist Movement: Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and the Nabis."--Course guidebook, pt. 1, p. 1.
Van Gogh and Gauguin
Electric Arguments and Utopian Dreams
Published in 2001
"Van Gogh and Gauguin explores the artists' intertwined lives from a psychoanalytic perspective, drawing a nuanced and sophisticated picture of the artists' dealings with each other. The book also examines the aesthetic convictions that united and divided the two men, and the extent to which they influenced each other's art."--Jacket.
A Passion for Paris
Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light
Published in 2015
"'A top-notch walking tour of Paris. The author's encyclopedic knowledge of the city and its artists grants him a mystical gift of access: doors left ajar and carriage gates left open foster his search for the city's magical story. Anyone who loves Paris will adore this joyful book. Readers visiting the city are advised to take it with them to discover countless new experiences'--Kirkus Reviews (starred); A unique combination of memoir, history, and travelogue, this is author David Downie's irreverent quest to uncover why Paris is the world's most romantic city--and has been for over 150 years. Abounding in secluded, atmospheric parks, artists' studios, cafes, restaurants and streets little changed since the 1800s, Paris exudes romance. The art and architecture, the cityscape, riverbanks, and the unparalleled quality of daily life are part of the equation. But the city's allure derives equally from hidden sources: querulous inhabitants, a bizarre culture of heroic negativity, and a rich historical past supplying enigmas, pleasures and challenges. Rarely do visitors suspect the glamor and chic and the carefree atmosphere of the City of Light grew from and still feed off the dark fountainheads of riot, rebellion, mayhem and melancholy--and the subversive literature, art and music of the Romantic Age. Weaving together his own with the lives and loves of Victor Hugo, Georges Sand, Charles Baudelaire, Balzac, Nadar and other great Romantics, Downie delights in the city's secular romantic pilgrimage sites asking, Why Paris, not Venice or Rome--the tap root of 'romance'--or Berlin, Vienna and London--where the earliest Romantics built castles-in-the-air and sang odes to nightingales? Read A Passion for Paris : Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light and find out"-- Provided by publisher.
The Devil in Montmartre
A Mystery in Fin-de-siecle Paris
Published in 2014
Inspector Achille Lefebvre delves deep into the underworld of 1889 Paris to investigate the murder of a popular dancer at the Moulin Rouge amidst fears that Jack the Ripper has crossed the English Channel.
Debussy's Paris
Piano Portraits of the Belle Époque
Published in 2017
Claude Debussy's exquisite piano works have captivated generations with their dreamlike atmosphere and mysterious soundscapes. Written in Paris at the height of the Belle Époque, Debussy's works reflect not only the most appealing and innocent aspects of Paris but also the more disquieting attitudes of the time such as racism, colonial domination, and nationalistic hostility. Pianist Catherine Kautsky reveals little-known elements of Parisian culture and weaves the music, the man, the city, and the era into an indissoluble portrait that will delight anyone who has ever been entranced by Debussy's music or the city that inspired it. -- from back cover.
Bel Ami
The History of a Scoundrel
Published in 2012
Returning from three years of military service in Algeria, journalist Georges Duroy takes advantage of his mistresses to achieve success. He wields his charm with unscrupulous ambition, becoming one of the most powerful men in Paris. In his 1885 novel Bel Ami, Maupassant constructs a cynical portrait of human nature.
The Paris Winter
Published in 2014
"Maud Heighton came to Lafond's famous Academie to paint, and to flee the constraints of her small English town. It took all her courage to escape, but Paris, she quickly realizes, is no place for a light purse. While her fellow students enjoy the dazzling decadence of the Belle Epoque, Maud slips into poverty. Quietly starving, and dreading another cold Paris winter, Maud is hired by Christian Morel as companion to his beautiful, young sister, Sylvie. But Sylvie, Maud discovers, is not quite the darling she seems. She has a secret addiction to opium and an ominous air of intrigue. As Maud is drawn further into the Morels' world of elegant luxury, their secrets become hers. And before the New Year arrives, a greater deception will plunge her into the darkness that waits beneath this glittering city of light. Set against the backdrop of the Great Flood, The Paris Winter is a dark and powerful tale of deceit and revenge from a masterful storyteller. "
Paris
The Novel
Published in 2014
Presents a multigenerational saga detailing the history of Paris, from its founding under the Romans to the hotbed of cultural activity during the 1920s and 1930s. It is an epic portrait of Paris that leaps through centuries as it weaves the tales of families whose fates are forever entwined with the City of Lights. The multigenerational saga takes listeners on a journey through thousands of years of Parisian history, through intimate and vivid tales of characters both fictional and true, and with the sights, scents, and tastes of Paris come to life.
Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre
Published in 2005
"Illustrated with 370 color plates, Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre is the first major work to present the artist's oeuvre in the context of Montmartre's lively art scene from roughly 1885 to 1901. Accompanying an exhibition of the same name at the National Gallery of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, the book features the important paintings, drawings, prints, and posters Toulouse-Lautrec made on Montmartre subjects. It also includes masterpieces by contemporaries he inspired or who inspired him - Degas, Van Gogh, Picasso, and others - as well as rarely seen illustrations, lithographs, photographs, and ephemera of the era. And it discusses the artists, writers, actors, singers, and dancers who formed Toulouse-Lautrec's circle."--BOOK JACKET.
The Ladies' Paradise
Published in 2008
"Through charm, drive, and diligent effort Octave Mouret has become the director of one of the finest new department stores in Paris, Au Bonheur des Dames. Supremely aware of the power of his position, Mouret seeks to exploit the desire that his luxuriantly displayed merchandise arouses in the ladies who shop, and the aspirations of the young female assistants he employs. Charting the beginnings of the capitalist economy and bourgeois society, Zola captures in lavish detail the greedy customers and gossiping staff, and the obsession with image, fashion, and gratification that was a phenomenon of nineteenth-century French consumer society. Of all Zola's novels, this may be the one with the most relevance for our own time"--The publisher.