Spurling, Hilary:The Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse: The Early Years, 1869-1908
- gebunden oder broschiert 2015, ISBN: 9780679434283
UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Max Hennessy is the pseudonym of John Harris,author of 'The Sea Shall Not Have Them'.] NFINE/FINE. No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean… Mehr…
UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Max Hennessy is the pseudonym of John Harris,author of 'The Sea Shall Not Have Them'.] NFINE/FINE. No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean, glossy laminated,wrap-around colour pictorial artwork,by Ian Robertson,illustrated dw/dj, with black lettering; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing toedges and corners - no major nicks or tears present.Majority of any light creasing is to top edges of dw/dj.Top edges bright and generally clean,fore-edges however, have a few splash/stain spots to top 1" of it's edges - the remainder bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean- near pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners, appears unread - apart from my own collation.Bright,crisp,clean, sharp-cornered,publisher's original,plain green cloth boards with bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain white endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,3-292pp [paginated] includes Pts 1-3 comprising 8,9 and 8 chapters respectively; plus [unpaginated] 2pp blanks,half-title+title pages, characters list/table,Pts separator pages and 4pp blanks at the rear. Hero of the Jutland in WW1,Kelly Maguire progresses rapidly to senior rank during the inter-war years - beset with difficulties as,in particulary dangerous times,politicians insist on cutting down the Navy's strength.Kelly finds himself involved in the appalling tragedy of the Russian Civil War of 1919-1920,when the Navy manned armoured trains and was occupied in the rescue of thousands of terrified White Russians while the Red Army approached and typhus decimated their regiments.Readers of Max Hennessy's previous book,the first in 'The Lion at Sea' series,will remember Kelly's lifelong romance with Charlotte Upfold ('Charley').This becomes complicated by the appearance of a seductive Russian baroness.When Kelly finds himself concerned with the activities of the Yangtze gunboats during the Chinese troubles of 1927,there is yet another emotional entanglement,and this one leads tomarriage,not to the unfortunate Charley but to the spoileddaughter of a wealthy aristocrat.Kelly's life suddenly seems to go haywire,and he returns to England in the traumatic experiences of the naval mutiny at Invergordon.Kelly's confidence and initiative are typical of a hardened sailor,who is a born leader,and these,with a dash of good luck and a little help from an old love and an old enemy,save him from disaster in a splendid and gripping climax to the book. 'The Dangerous Years' is a tremendous sequel in the story of Kelly Maguire.It is also a book with much period interest, dealing with vital incidents in British history not often featured in books about the Navy. Since April 2013,and again in March 2015,and in this year too,the UK Post Office has altered it's Pricing in Proportion template, altering its prices,weight allowances,dimensions and lowered its qualifying compensation rates too! So,please contact rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk ,for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!, LONDON.HAMISH HAMILTON,1978., 4.5, New York: Alfred A. Knopf; A Borzoi Book, 1999. xxv, 480 pages, [24] pages of plates, illustrations (some colour); 25 cm. Near fine. Firm binding, clean inside copy. Spine slightly rolled at the crown. Stated First Edition. Dust jacket protected in a mylar book cover. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by special arrangement. "Henri Matisse is one of the masters of twentieth-century art and a household word to millions of people who find joy and meaning in his light-filled, colorful images--yet, despite all the books devoted to his work, the man himself has remained a mystery. Now, in the hands of the superb biographer Hilary Spurling, the unknown Matisse becomes visible at last. Matisse was born into a family of shopkeepers in 1869, in a gloomy textile town in the north of France. His environment was brightened only by the sumptuous fabrics produced by the local weavers--magnificent brocades and silks that offered Matisse his first vision of light and color, and which later became a familiar motif in his paintings. He did not find his artistic vocation until after leaving school, when he struggled for years with his father, who wanted him to take over the family seed-store. Escaping to Paris, where he was scorned by the French art establishment, Matisse lived for fifteen years in great poverty--an ordeal he shared with other young artists and with Camille Joblaud, the mother of his daughter, Marguerite. But Matisse never gave up. Painting by painting, he struggled toward the revelation that beckoned to him, learning about color, light, and form from such mentors as Signac, Pissarro, and the Australian painter John Peter Russell, who ruled his own art colony on an island off the coast of Brittany. In 1898, after a dramatic parting from Joblaud, Matisse met and married Am lie Parayre, who became his staunchest ally. She and their two sons, Jean and Pierre, formed with Marguerite his indispensable intimate circle. From the first day of his wedding trip to Ajaccio in Corsica, Matisse realized that he had found his spiritual home: the south, with its heat, color, and clear light. For years he worked unceasingly toward the style by which we know him now. But in 1902, just as he was on the point of achieving his goals as a painter, he suddenly left Paris with his family for the hometown he detested, and returned to the somber, muted palette he had so recently discarded. Why did this happen? Art historians have called this regression Matisse's 'dark period,' but none have ever guessed the reason for it. What Hilary Spurling has uncovered is nothing less than the involvement of Matisse's in-laws, the Parayres, in a monumental scandal which threatened to topple the banking system and government of France. The authorities, reeling from the divisive Dreyfus case, smoothed over the so-called Humbert Affair, and did it so well that the story of this twenty-year scam--and the humiliation and ruin its climax brought down on the unsuspecting Matisse and his family--have been erased from memory until now. It took many months for Matisse to come to terms with this disgrace, and nearly as long to return to the bold course he had been pursuing before the interruption. What lay ahead were the summers in St-Tropez and Collioure; the outpouring of 'Fauve' paintings; Matisse's experiments with sculpture; and the beginnings of acceptance by dealers and collectors, which, by 1908, put his life on a more secure footing. Hilary Spurling's discovery of the Humbert Affair and its effects on Matisse's health and work is an extraordinary revelation, but it is only one aspect of her achievement. She enters into Matisse's struggle for expression and his tenacious progress from his northern origins to the life-giving light of the Mediterranean with rare sensitivity. She brings to her task an astonishing breadth of knowledge about his family, about fin-de-si cle Paris, the conventional Salon painters who shut their doors on him, his artistic comrades, his early patrons, and his incipient rivalry with Picasso. / Hilary Spurling was born in England and educated at Oxford University. She has been theater critic and literary editor of The Spectator, is now a regular book reviewer for the Daily Telegraph, and has written biographies of Ivy Compton-Burnett and Paul Scott. She lives in London." - Publisher.. 1st. Hardcover. Very Good/Fine. 8vo. Collectible., Alfred A. Knopf; A Borzoi Book, 1999, 4<
