Splendide Californie! Impressions of the Golden State by French Artists, 1786-1900.

San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 2001 Book. Very fine. Hardcover. First edition. One of 450 copies designed by the Yolla Bolly Press in Covelo, California. Foreword by James McClatchy. Folio. xiv, 144pp. Illustrated throughout with color and black & white reproductions. Notes and bibliography. Green cloth, printed paper spine label, pictorial pastedown on front cover. A very fine copy in publisher's slipcase. A welcome reference and beautifully produced art history which spans the French artists of the earliest world explorations to the Franco-American children of French gold rush artists, illustrated with 80 clearly and expertly printed reproductions of paintings, sketches, lithographs, and photographs. Many of the images appear in print here for the first time. Paired with the exquisite plates are biographical essays on twenty-eight artists, their native roots, aesthetic training, career, travels, etc. The book is divided into six sections which span distinct periods of French artistic activity in California. Sections include French Explorers, French Californios, French Gold Diggers, French Artists in San Francisco, French Bohemians, and the Fin de Siècle of the 1880's and 1890's. Together, the book's biographies, and historic narratives offer a broad chronicle of the evolution and legacy of French contributions to and influences on California's art community..