The books comes in a case and has a paper cover.
The front of the box, the back and the front of the cover (it has the same illustrations as the back):
Happy me with a book |
What I like about this book:
+ A large number of works.I mean, LARGE. (I've just checked for you - 448 illustrations)
+ There are studies and sketches for the most famous paintings.
The painting "Religious Procession in Kursk Province" |
Next page is dedicated to studies for this painting (Sorry, the photo is flipped) |
What I don't like:
- ColorsSome illustrations are too dark. Not a lot of them, of course, but I have one question - How could they print some of the most famous works in such a bad quality? Did they think that we've already seen all these masterpieces a million times, so there is no need to take care of them?!
Here is how the portrait of Mussorgsky (left) looks in the book |
Here is how it looks at the Google Art Project |
There is a biography of Repin in english, however, it's not a bilingual book - 90 pages of russian text vs 2 pages of summary in english.
- No close-ups
One of the reviewer (on russian website) mentioned that there are a lot of details of the main features, the exact parts you would like to see closer. I was intrigued, because I'm one of those people who like to see the brushwork as close as possible. However, there are NO close-ups. I guess, the reviewer confused portrait studies (etudes) with details.
Here is how I imagine the details should look like (from Taschen's book Caravaggio. The complete Works). |
There are no similar close-ups in the Repin's book (it's still the Taschen's book - Caravaggio. The complete Works) |
At first, this point was in pros, but then I convert rubles into dollars and it turned out that for this amount of money you can buy Caravaggio: Complete Works on Amazon (oh, I want this book so badly).
The price for Ilya Repin Great Collection is around 65 dollars. I've bought it on the Black Friday sale with a special discount, so it was only 40 dollars.
- Availability
I didn't find this book on amazon.
- The size
The book doesn't fit in shelves, it's way too tall.
Photos:
Summary:
It's not a book from Taschen and it feels, but Ilya Repin Great Collection book is still awesome.I've mentioned a lot of negatives, but there is one point that turns the cons into dust - the number of works. It's called Great Collection and it really is.
This book is a perfect gift to every Repin's admirer.
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