Ingres

In its "Back to Visual Basics" series, the German Publisher Taschen has introduced a new series of books whose purpose is to serve as an introduction to the great artists of the Western tradition. Each volume is 98 pages long and is filled with high quality reproductions of the artist's paintings. Accompanying these reproductions is a scholarly essay which explains why the artist is important and the context in which the paintings were produced. I have always admired Ingres'paintings but only have the superficial knowledge of his work that comes from an art history survey course. For an investment of about ten dollars and an hour of reading time, I now have a much richer understanding of Jean-August Dominique Ingres and his time. Having finished this book, I am now considering purchasing a more indepth study of his work. The Taschen "Back to Basic Visual" series is a great bargain and I look forward to learning more about some of the other great artists of the Western tradition. Highly recommended.