Picasso’s Paris: Walking Tours of the Artist’s Life in the City - Bookshop - France

Picasso's Paris: Walking Tours of the Artist's Life in the City

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Picasso may have arrived from Spain ill-suited to Parisian life but he and the city developed an affair that continues to this day. It is with this in mind that author Ellen Williams sets out four walking tours in her small but exquisitely detailed Picasso's Paris. The tours, two on the Left Bank and two on the Right Bank, give enough insight into the man, his art and his friends that the walk itself is just a bonus.

Williams, a former art editor of Vogue and executive editor of TheJournal of Art, is adept at placing Picasso in the context of his contemporaries and the artists before him such as Renoir, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec. She also calls on expertise developed in writing an earlier walking guide, The Impressionists' Paris, a tour of artists' studios and subjects. The book is full of thumbnail art reproductions but the more interesting illustrations are the archival photographs of Picasso and his companions in the Montmartre and Montparnasse of the early 1900s. Sadly, many of the scenes have changed dramatically. For example, the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre, "which was said to smell of 'dog and paint'" and "quickly became the rendezvous for the growing collection of friends and admirers" was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in the 1970s. Still, Williams ably recreates the illusion of the life and the interiors of the famed artist's habitats even when the buildings no longer exist.

Unlike many walking tours, Williams reveals rather than tells programatically. To aid the illusion, Williams recommends neighbourhood period cafes and restaurants along each route, with simple maps and brief walking directions. The cloth-binding and layout in this hardbound gem make this a worthy gift choice.--Kathleen Buckley

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