Pierre-Paul Prud'Hon
(Sylvain Laveissiere, N. Metropolitan Museum Of Art)
In an age of great painters like David, Gericault, and Delacroix, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon's (1758-1823) anomalous genius seems to stand slightly apart and below. A romantic Neoclassicist and a proto-Romantic classicist, the French master could boast a considerable achievement, amply expatiated and reverently documented in this handsome exhibition catalog by Laveissiere, who is compiling the catalogue raisonne on Prud'hon. While every aspect of the artist's creative range is given its due, his complex allegorical compositions and his extraordinarily accomplished and justly famous nude academies will continue to garner the greatest appreciation. Not slighted, however, is his genuine achievement as illustrator and painter of portraits and mythologies. Collections with an interest in this critical art historical moment will wish to acquire this now-fundamental volume. [Library Journal]
