The One New Art Book You Must Have: My Pick of the Best of New Fall Books — Part Two

This week I’ve selected one fantastic new art tome for your reference library and for your lifetime collection of beautiful and inspiring books.

‘The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings’ , at 544 pages, offers a vivid history of 5,000 years of painting from the museum’s treasures.

It is a beautifully provocative book with many surprises and the dramatic and thrilling landscape of art through the centuries.

I’m obsessed with art, and I love the treasury of ideas, techniques, spiritual longing, expression, and thought.

There’s a Picasso grisaille portrait juxtaposed with an ethereal portrait of a Korean scholar, and iconic depictions through the centuries. Manet jostles Monet. Sargent greets de Kooning. Raphael jousts with Vermeer. Rembrandt glares at Warhol.

Come and see some pages—and meet the who’s who of art. 

Head exploding: With 544 pages and 1100 color images of the Met’s art and sculpture collection, this book is intense. Masterpieces, indeed. 

Turn pages to enjoy Indian miniatures, Persian portraits, Cezanne’s dance classes, Australian tribal sculptures, Papuan paintings, Sargent, Gauguin, Fantin-Latour, Balthus, Bacon, and O’Keeffe and Warhol, as well as Gérome’s fantastically fetishy portrait of Bashi-Bazouk. 

The cover of this Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings tome is the impeccable Ingres portrait of Joséphine-Eléonore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassac de Béarn, Princesse de Broglie. This exquisite piece alone is worth the price of admission. 

SELF-PORTRAIT
WITH A STRAW HAT
1887
Vincent van Gogh
Dutch, 1853–1890
Oil on canvas;
16 × 12 1/2 in. (40.6 × 31.8 cm)
Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot
(1876–1967), 1967 (67.187.70a)

MANUEL OSORIO
MANRIQUE DE ZUNIGA
1787–88
Goya
(Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)
Spanish, 1746–1828
Oil on canvas;
50 × 40 in. (127 × 101.6 cm)
The Jules Bache Collection, 1949 (49.7.41)

The book is glossy and weighty. It presents lavish color illustrations and details of masterworks in all media, created in cultures across the globe. 

One brilliant aspect is the exciting juxtaposition of cultures and styles and creativity, with works presented chronologically from the dawn of civilization to today. Japanese gilded screens stand alongside mediaeval altarpieces. Leonard Lauder’s cubist portraits by Picasso seem to jump from the page. And in the central section—the history of religious fervor—there are enough versions of ‘The Annunciation’ to inspire reflection on adoration and symbolism. 

Exploration of wild glories of the planet, portraiture, abstraction, craft, power, and the many ways of depicting dress, fashion, and silk move the fascination from page to page. 

ANNUNCIATION TRIPTYCH
(MERODE ALTARPIECE)
ca. 1427–32
Workshop of Robert Campin
Netherlandish, ca. 1375–1444
Oil on oak; overall (open) 25 3/8 × 46 3/8 in.
(64.5 × 117.8 cm)
The Cloisters Collection, 1956 (56.70a–c)

SELF-PORTRAIT
1660
Rembrandt
(Rembrandt van Rijn)
Dutch, 1606–1669
Oil on canvas;
31 5/8 × 26 1/2 in. (80.3 × 67.3 cm)
Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913
(14.40.618)

It’s a well-selected compendium of masterworks—a lingering visit-- and even if you spent days and weeks lurking at the Met you could never find or see them all. 

Chinese scrolls, Greek urns, an Egyptian sarcophagus or two, and then through the centuries to Vermeer and Rembrandt and onward Turner and Kandinsky, it’s a feast. 

MÄDA PRIMAVESI
1912
Gustav Klimt
Austrian, 1862–1918
Oil on canvas;
59 × 43 1/2 in. (149.9 × 110.5 cm)
Gift of André and Clara Mertens, in memory
of her mother, Jenny Pulitzer Steiner, 1964
(64.148)

GARDEN AT SAINTE-ADRESSE
1867
Claude Monet
French, 1840–1926
Oil on canvas;
38 5/8 × 51 1/8 in. (98.1 × 129.9 cm)
Purchase, special contributions and funds
given or bequeathed by friends of the Museum,
1967 (67.241)

One double page spread I’ve been looking at for days is the hallucinogenic landscape, ‘Heart of the Andes’ (1859) by Frederick Edwin Church. You are there, standing on a mountain in Ecuador gazing in ecstasy. 

Seascapes, interiors, religious ecstasy are all here. 

The chronological sequence offers up surprises. One of my favorite spreads contrasts a full-page Lucian Freud portrait of Leigh Bowery’s massive nude back with, on the opposite page, an up-close portrait by Chuck Close. 

Notes on each painting are written by Kathryn Calley Galitz, a curator and educator at The Met. 


CREDITS:
All images here published with express permission of Rizzoli USA.

About this book:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings by Kathryn Calley Galitz, and a foreword by Thomas P. Campbell (Skira Rizzoli 2016)
For more information on these books and other new Rizzoli books:
www.rizzoliusa.com

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The One New Art Book You Must Have: My Pick of the Best of New Fall Books — Part Two

This week I’ve selected one fantastic new art tome for your reference library and for your lifetime collection of beautiful and inspiring books.

‘The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings’ , at 544 pages, offers a vivid history of 5,000 years of painting from the museum’s treasures.

It is a beautifully provocative book with many surprises and the dramatic and thrilling landscape of art through the centuries.

I’m obsessed with art, and I love the treasury of ideas, techniques, spiritual longing, expression, and thought.

There’s a Picasso grisaille portrait juxtaposed with an ethereal portrait of a Korean scholar, and iconic depictions through the centuries. Manet jostles Monet. Sargent greets de Kooning. Raphael jousts with Vermeer. Rembrandt glares at Warhol.

Come and see some pages—and meet the who’s who of art. 

Head exploding: With 544 pages and 1100 color images of the Met’s art and sculpture collection, this book is intense. Masterpieces, indeed. 

Turn pages to enjoy Indian miniatures, Persian portraits, Cezanne’s dance classes, Australian tribal sculptures, Papuan paintings, Sargent, Gauguin, Fantin-Latour, Balthus, Bacon, and O’Keeffe and Warhol, as well as Gérome’s fantastically fetishy portrait of Bashi-Bazouk. 

The cover of this Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings tome is the impeccable Ingres portrait of Joséphine-Eléonore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassac de Béarn, Princesse de Broglie. This exquisite piece alone is worth the price of admission. 

SELF-PORTRAIT
WITH A STRAW HAT
1887
Vincent van Gogh
Dutch, 1853–1890
Oil on canvas;
16 × 12 1/2 in. (40.6 × 31.8 cm)
Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot
(1876–1967), 1967 (67.187.70a)

MANUEL OSORIO
MANRIQUE DE ZUNIGA
1787–88
Goya
(Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)
Spanish, 1746–1828
Oil on canvas;
50 × 40 in. (127 × 101.6 cm)
The Jules Bache Collection, 1949 (49.7.41)

The book is glossy and weighty. It presents lavish color illustrations and details of masterworks in all media, created in cultures across the globe. 

One brilliant aspect is the exciting juxtaposition of cultures and styles and creativity, with works presented chronologically from the dawn of civilization to today. Japanese gilded screens stand alongside mediaeval altarpieces. Leonard Lauder’s cubist portraits by Picasso seem to jump from the page. And in the central section—the history of religious fervor—there are enough versions of ‘The Annunciation’ to inspire reflection on adoration and symbolism. 

Exploration of wild glories of the planet, portraiture, abstraction, craft, power, and the many ways of depicting dress, fashion, and silk move the fascination from page to page. 

ANNUNCIATION TRIPTYCH
(MERODE ALTARPIECE)
ca. 1427–32
Workshop of Robert Campin
Netherlandish, ca. 1375–1444
Oil on oak; overall (open) 25 3/8 × 46 3/8 in.
(64.5 × 117.8 cm)
The Cloisters Collection, 1956 (56.70a–c)

SELF-PORTRAIT
1660
Rembrandt
(Rembrandt van Rijn)
Dutch, 1606–1669
Oil on canvas;
31 5/8 × 26 1/2 in. (80.3 × 67.3 cm)
Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913
(14.40.618)

It’s a well-selected compendium of masterworks—a lingering visit-- and even if you spent days and weeks lurking at the Met you could never find or see them all. 

Chinese scrolls, Greek urns, an Egyptian sarcophagus or two, and then through the centuries to Vermeer and Rembrandt and onward Turner and Kandinsky, it’s a feast. 

MÄDA PRIMAVESI
1912
Gustav Klimt
Austrian, 1862–1918
Oil on canvas;
59 × 43 1/2 in. (149.9 × 110.5 cm)
Gift of André and Clara Mertens, in memory
of her mother, Jenny Pulitzer Steiner, 1964
(64.148)

GARDEN AT SAINTE-ADRESSE
1867
Claude Monet
French, 1840–1926
Oil on canvas;
38 5/8 × 51 1/8 in. (98.1 × 129.9 cm)
Purchase, special contributions and funds
given or bequeathed by friends of the Museum,
1967 (67.241)

One double page spread I’ve been looking at for days is the hallucinogenic landscape, ‘Heart of the Andes’ (1859) by Frederick Edwin Church. You are there, standing on a mountain in Ecuador gazing in ecstasy. 

Seascapes, interiors, religious ecstasy are all here. 

The chronological sequence offers up surprises. One of my favorite spreads contrasts a full-page Lucian Freud portrait of Leigh Bowery’s massive nude back with, on the opposite page, an up-close portrait by Chuck Close. 

Notes on each painting are written by Kathryn Calley Galitz, a curator and educator at The Met. 


CREDITS:
All images here published with express permission of Rizzoli USA.

About this book:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings by Kathryn Calley Galitz, and a foreword by Thomas P. Campbell (Skira Rizzoli 2016)
For more information on these books and other new Rizzoli books:
www.rizzoliusa.com

SaveSave

Visiting Chateau Domingue: Timeless Materials, Classic Provençal Style

I’ve admired Ruth Gay’s Chateau Domingue atelier, warehouse, and gallery for some time. Hidden in a quiet corner of Houston, her company nevertheless attracts designers from around the world for her authentic French architectural materials, the wonderfully aged floor planks, and the compelling scale of her centuries-old chateau doors and limestone fireplaces.

When Jean-Louis Deniot and I were on our whirlwind book tour for our Rizzoli book ‘Jean-Louis Deniot Interiors’, one of the favorite parties was at Chateau Domingue in Houston. Ruth Gay’s fantastically stylish antique collections and showroom are her homage to Provence, and proof that style can transcend trends.

At the Chateau Domingue celebration, we loved spending time with PaperCity Editor-in-Chief Holly Moore and all our friends. Afterwards, we dashed to Ruth’s magical house surrounded by noble oaks. Ruth arranged cocktails and dinner in the garden and we lingered on into the night in a buzz of camaraderie and good cheer.

Come with me this week to meet Ruth Gay. We visit her house, with interiors designed by Pam Pierce, and see latest treasures from the South of France.

Ruth Gay’s Houston residence was restored and remodeled sixteen years ago—and feels as if it was built a century or two ago. The secret: limestone salvaged from demolished houses near St. Remy, antique lighting, natural linen, understated décor, old marble, and a paled-down color scheme inspired by natural Provençal tones.

Ruth Gay, founder of Chateau Domingue

Recently, I sat down with Ruth Gay, who founded Chateau Domingue in Houston in 2002

DDS: Ruth, it is such a great pleasure to visit Chateau Domingue. And your house, with its sequence of Provence-inspired rooms, is a dream, a reverie. How did you start Chateau Domingue?

Ruth Gay: Diane, thank you for your kind words about my house.

We founded Chateau Domingue just over a decade ago. As with many new businesses, mine started with a dream, a need.

Renovating my house in Houston, I wanted to capture the feeling of centuries-old places in the south of France and in Tuscany and Umbria. I had fond memories of spending summers in remote corners of Provence and visiting historic towns in Italy.

When I started Chateau Domingue there was no place that I knew of in the U.S. that offered such things as Dalles de Chamaret flooring, or centuries-old window frames, or large-scale fireplaces, and old ironwork balconies or salvaged old marble.

For our house, we wanted a warm, soft feeling with old stone, beams, and limestone floors. My husband Jack and I could not find these elements, handmade, and with the soft glow of age. I went back to Europe to remedy that lack, literally by the containerful!

DDS: What is the history/background of your Houston residence?

Ruth Gay: I wanted the 1950s era red brick, traditional Georgian home that we bought to feel like a bastide, a gentleman's country house in France. When choosing floors, stone walls, counters, and even furnishings, I tried to imagine kids, dogs, family, and lots of friends really relaxing and enjoying themselves. This helped to direct a lot of decisions. I worked closely with Pam Pierce.

The interiors of our home now look and feel like the south of France. The red brick exterior (now covered in ivy) reminds us that we are actually in Texas. The new line of plaster Chateau Domingue will be launching this fall will soon transform the exterior.






DDS: What do you love and adore most about South of France style?

Ruth Gay: I admire the cohesive traditional style you find in France where everything is warm and rustic yet still projects a certain polish and craftsmanship and elegance. The colors are soft, subtle, earth-inspired, and sun-faded. Nothing strident. I love also that through the centuries, Provençal and Southern French style have harmonious proportions. There’s a comfortable sense of simplicity combined with materials that are tough and timeless. Since I founded the company, I’ve also become quite obsessed with French garden ornament, fountains, water basins, garden gates, and outdoor architectural elements. 

DDS: What makes Chateau Domingue unique?

Ruth Gay: Our style is very focused. We love the weather-worn wood, soft patinas, and materials that are unearthed in rural France. Our look is consistently French, with a dash of Tuscany. Our color palette is soft, sun-struck and sun-faded.

We collect old tiles, decorative objects, lighting, and ironwork elements, even handcrafted old glass. We specialize in architectural elements such as doors, doorframes, ceiling beams, window frames, mirrors and arches, many of substantial scale. We also offer rustic furniture, and occasionally I find wonderful old country-town signage. My secret: I get up very early to get to country flea markets, to meet dealers, and to roam through villages and find country houses being demolished.

Ruth Gay: We have a 15,000 sq ft warehouse, and an outdoor selection on display on three acres. We work with many architects and interior designers, as well as private clients. If they do not find what you’re looking for, we’ll find it in Europe. My sources gathered over a decade run very deep. I have long and close relationships with craftspeople, artists, stonemasons, and carpenters, cabinetmakers that all work in traditional styles.

DDS: Ruth, you also follow annual antique markets, as well as specialist dealers. You are a fantastic resource for paintings. The word ‘salvage’ does not quite seem noble enough for your inventory. But it is true that many French homeowners renovate and discard architectural elements like steel spiral staircases, balustrades, finials, weathervanes, cabinets, marble counters and historic signage. You bring these treasures back to Houston.

Ruth Gay: Yes, Diane, every summer I set up my base in Avignon at La Mirande, a hotel I love. And our family stays in Eygalieres, a beautiful village south of St. Remy. It has a weekly market, and it’s well located for me to explore, meet dealers, and find new sources. I love the hunt. I’m obsessed.


DDS: Ruth, thank you. It was a great pleasure to visit.

Atelier Domingue

Atelier Domingue is a line of custom metal doors and windows offered by Chateau Domingue. The recent lines of architectural elements (Maison, Bastide, & Atelier) are all under the umbrella of Chateau Domingue. 

It was during her travels throughout Europe that Ruth first fell in love with the low-profile windows and doors utilized in ancient properties both distinguished and demure. Seeking a resource to recreate this look at home, however, Ruth identified a void and thus, Atelier Domingue was conceived. Committed to providing metal windows and doors that communicate a quiet elegance that is appropriate for homes honoring the contemporary, the time-worn, or an interplay of both, the artisans of Atelier Domingue Architectural Metalcrafts will fabricate custom, steel windows and doors reflecting a streamlined aesthetic with a nod to the sublime.

CREDITS:

Images courtesy Ruth Gay, Chateau Domingue.

For more information on Chateau Domingue, call the Houston headquarters 713-961-3444 or visit www.chateaudomingue.com

My Ninth Annual Listing: Best and Most Exciting New Style/Design Books for Fall 2016

This week, Part 1 — six exceptional new books.

I’ve selected my favorite books—design, style, Paris cuisine, interiors—that are worthy of your lifetime reading library. Pleasure, reference, fun, inspiration, ideas, travel, and originality are all here.

In these delicious volumes: young aristocrats, fabulous flowers, creative interiors, and the authoritative new reference book for restaurants in Paris. Nostalgic-filled trips to the South, a furry friend, artful flowers, and a bit of history served with lashings of gossip are all here. A must. Interiors hold center stage of course.

One surprise. Neville Jacobs. Yes, Marc Jacobs’ dog, a distinctive bull terrier, has his own witty new book. Yes, he’s the current cover boy of September AD.

There’s a reason it’s on my radar. ’Neville Jacobs I’m Marc’s Dog”, by Nicolas Newbold, Neville’s studio manager, donates all profits from the books to The Sato Project, which works to rescue abused and abandoned dogs in Puerto Rico (www.thesatoproject.com).

Come with me to discover the best new books, new faces, new ideas, and books that you’ll want to accompany you through life to inspire you forever.

ONE:  ‘GREAT HOUSES: MODERN ARISTOCRATS’  

What’s admirable in ‘Great Houses Modern Aristocrats’ (Rizzoli): It’s by photographer Jonathan Becker and the writer Jim Reginato, a longtime friend. Jim is a longform journalist. He researches, and every house is revealed, enriched, and brought to life. There’s wonderfully detailed text and lots of insider information, along with over a dozen of the grand houses of Great Britain plus St. Lucia and Tuscany. This is a book to study, read, immerse in, and place in your library alongside your favorite classic design and style books.

What I Love: Houghton Hall, plus The Grove and a dash of gossipy text about the Mountbattens.

Look for Haddon Hall, Blenhein Palace, Luggala, The Old Vicarage (Debo Mitford) and Lismore Castle.

  TWO:  ‘AROUND THAT TIME: HORST AT HOME IN VOGUE’  

What’s great in ‘Around that Time Horst at Home in Vogue’ (Abrams): I hope you all have ‘Vogue’s Book of Houses Gardens and People’ (published in 1961). That’s an essential reference for designers, incredibly chic. Everyone who was everyone. This new book gathers these sixty glam people together—including Pauline de Rothschild, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Kenny Lane, Elsa Peretti, Deeda Blair, Mona von Bismarck, and Yves Saint Laurent. It’s worth acquiring just for Cy Twombly’s palazzo.

What I Love: Hamish Bowles’ introduction and insight. Revisiitng Twombly, Nancy Lancaster and Francois and Betty Catroux is worth the trip. 

THREE:  ‘IN BLOOM: CREATING AND LIVING WITH FLOWERS’    

What’s great on the colorful pages of ‘In Bloom Creating and Living with Flowers’ (Rizzoli): Photographer/ writer Ngoc Minh Ngo follows her own trail around the world. She immerses a reader in Tangier, the Bronx, London, Brooklyn, Bordeaux and Echaussieres. I don’t usually love paper flowers (or any fake flowers) but Livia Cetti’s paper petals as shown by Ngo, are entrancing. 

What I Love: Interiors, studios, rooms, gardens, not just flowers. This is a treasure, for designers, for flower designers, and romantics.

‘In Bloom’ means the return of the great floral/interiors photographer, Ngoc Minh Ngo and her fantastic and spectacular and exacting eye for interiors and beauty. A book to treasure, every page takes the reader to over dozen gardens, houses, flower designers and exceptional paper flowers.

FOUR:  ‘MUST EAT PARIS: AN ECLECTIC SELECTION OF CULINARY LOCATIONS’   

What’s great in ‘Must Eat Paris An Eclectic Selection of Culinary Locations’ (Lannoo) by Luc Hoornaert, with photography by Kris Vlegels: It’s time for a new and original appraisal of’ Paris restaurants. ‘Must Eat Paris’ is essential for all my friends who often travel to Paris, and live in Paris, who appreciate a reliable guide to dining, high and low, grand and gritty. Lannoo is a fantastic Belgian publishing house to check out.

Luc Hoornaert, picked his 100 favorites, and takes readers on a trip to meet chefs, hang out in dives, and discover the city. 

His knowledge of Japanese cuisine and chefs is acute, and he knows the best and unknown. Lots of my favorites all over Paris are here. Photography is divine, and the chefs…by the way…and all handsome. Must collect this.

What I Love: Luc Hoornaert has selected restaurants, cafés, patisseries, that are historic, fun, serious (L’Arpege), undiscovered, local, neighborhood, chic, or gritty, and avoids the trendy.

Carnivores, vegetarians and pescatarians, rejoice. Photography is soulful. He zeroes in on special dishes (smoked goose ravioli, anyone?) and loves Japanese refinement. He's obsessed with fresh ingredients. The eccentric and the rare, love it.

FIVE:   ‘NEVILLE JACOBS: I'M MARC'S DOG’ 

What’s great about ‘Neville Jacobs I’m Marc Jacobs Dog’ (Rizzoli) by Neville Newbold, with a foreword by Marc Jacobs: It's a true fan book, with 240 pages of Neville. He hangs out with models like Christy Turlington, and lolls at Marc Jacobs’ office. Sweet.

‘Neville Jacobs I’m Marc Jacobs Dog’ was originally subtitled ‘The Hardest Working Dog in Fashion’. Neville Jacobs has, it is said, 171,000 followers on Instagram. Here are the images, a portfolio, and a fan book. There’s tenderness, style, irony, fun, and Neville’s life. He’s a handsome fellow. Sales benefit The Sato Project, www.thesatoproject.com.

What I Love: He’s often dressed in people clothing (credit is due to photographer William Wegman) and looks splendid, a very good sport.

SIX:   ‘AMELIA HANDEGAN: ROOMS’ 

What’s great about ‘Amelia Handegan Rooms’ (Rizzoli) is her understated approach. Historic rooms feel fresh, with a very light touch. Handegan pays attention to materials. Her color palette feels inspired by the landscape. There’s a sense of life, and time passing. I especially admire the way she gives walls their due. For a house in South Carolina, she commissioned California artist Scott Waterman to paint subtle landscapes on the walls. Greek Revival inspirations flow through the pages—and no room feels ‘styled’ or ‘decorated’. I must visit the region, thanks to Amelia Handegan’s footprint and guidance. Her studio is in Charleston.

What I Love:  I love California. Adore it. And after reading ‘Amelia Handegan Rooms’ (wonderfully written by Ingrid Abramovitch)—I'm tempted by the idea of living in a 1772 mansion in Charleston, or Rose Hill, an historic estate in the Rappahannock River Valley, with Handegan’s deft decorating. This is a quietly beautiful book, photographed by Pieter Estersohn.

CREDITS:

As always, I’d be so happy if you would acquire these books from your local bookseller. Privately-owned bookshops are our cultural treasures. Please drop in and order your books there.

All images published here with express permission of each publisher.

For more information:

www.rizzoliusa.com

www.abramsbooks.com

www.lannoo.be/international