Henri Schindler is a devotee of New Orleans Carnival. He served as the last float designer for the Mistick Krewe of Comus, the orginator of thematic New Orleans Carnival parades, until the Mistick Krewe was driven from the streets in 1992 by government interference. Rather than focus on this end, Mr. Schindler writes evocatively of the glory days of carnival, the "last butterfly of winter". It is at once stylish, historical, and moving- a must have for every carnival afficiendo. You come away not seeing just a drunken debacle, but an appreciation for a local celebration, rich in traditions, social history and the artists who helped create it. Complete with extraordinary photo-plates.

I CAN NOT understand why this play of Marlowe's was never popular. In this chilling masterpiece, not a single page is wasted. This play offers several dramatic passages. Guise's soliloquy in scene 2 is especially powerful. Another aspect of this play that Marlowe handles with the utmost of genius is Anjou's rise to King Henry III, and later his fall. Throughout the play, Guise presents us with chilling moments and his death is handled with dramatically appropriate lines. The reconciliation between King Henry III and Navarre also demonstrates Marlowe's mastery of literature. Finally, King Henry III's death really helps us to see that Marlowe paved the way for Shakespeare in every sense of the word. If you liked Marlowe's "Faustus" and "Edward II," you WILL NOT want to miss this one!

These stickers are approx. 1 3/4" x 2 3/4" and include the title of the painting and artist name.They are clear, good quality despite being sticker size. There are many applications for these including stationary, envelopes, etc. or make great stocking stuffers.

Henri MATISSE's first success as an artist was his Paul Cezanne-type "La liseuse" still-life, with a brown and green flowered wallpaper pattern picked up as a cloth in his later "Nature morte a l'autoportrait." But his favorite painter was actually Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, as seen in the cool greys of his "Nature morte aux peches" and "Nature morte aux raisins" still-lifes. His still-life "Grande marine grise" springboarded the empty and symmetrical freedom of a Caspar David Friedrich landscape into the Piet Mondrian-styled beaches of modern art. In fact, much of the rest of his work had a part in how twentieth-century art, with its concern over color, turned out: "La coiffure," with its enormous hanging arm from Michelangelo's "Night" figure clasping hand to head, for a modern art growing out of twentieth-century anxieties; "Collioure" series, with figures recognizable from flat colors and with meadows dyed red against green, for a dazzling light from a Eugene Delacroix-type greatest outburst of opposing colors; "Le compotier" creating, not imitating, life by giving up color as description for Japanese print-type color as expression; "La desserte" showing dark tones coloring more brilliantly than light; "Homme nu," as an Auguste Rodin-type striding figure, taking one side in the twentieth-century artistic question over form holding its own edges against color or shaping from spreading color, as in "Bronze et fruit" still-life and his Paul Gauguin-type "Nu assis" figure almost lost against the arbitrarily patterned sunlight; "Interieur au rideau Egyptien" and "L'interieur rouge" finalizing Fauvism by energizing light and uniting picture parts; "Lecon de piano," as his masterpiece experiment abstracting garden greens and room colors; "Luxe, calme et volupte" escaping into the grandly simple Cezanne style of "Trois baigneuses" and leading into Symbolism; "Madame de Matisse," as a specific person in an alertly balanced pose, just by a Constantin Brancusi-type sculptured eyebrow and nose against blue sending off grey for the curved shaping of her head, for Amedeo Modigliani's and twentieth-century art's figures directly shown as being physical presences and filling human roles; "Nature morte, Seville" riotously patterning color; "Le reve" balancing field and figure, in-between areas and physical presence in pink arabesquing against blue; "La serpentine" collecting light along arabesqued thick lower legs and thin thighs into a separately modelled physical effect, as later seen in his own "Jeannette" busts and in Pablo Picasso; "Le the," with a Cubist-type head for his daughter Marguerite; and "Vue de St Tropez" landscaping Paul Signac-type energetically brushstroked color. So, through appropriately chosen illustrations and carefully organized text, the author leaves us on excellent terms with what Matisse did for art: I particularly like the attention that Lawrence Gowing gives to the cut-paper works, such as "La danse" and "Le rouge et le noir," and to the Vence chapel stained glass, as special favorites for my sculptress mother and artist sister. Unfortunately, the book is now out-of-print: so any readers not tracking down a stray copy might want to look into MATISSE: THE WONDER OF COLOR by Xavier Girard, HENRI MATISSE: CUT-OUTS ALBUM, HENRI MATISSE: THE VENCE CHAPEL, and MATISSE IN TAHITI by Paule Laudon.

As a parent and volunteer educator, this book and the others in this series provide excellent age appropriate material and interesting facts about the most important artists. The book offers great visuals, with many ideas for looking at art with youngsters. Even the exercises are easy and successful. The format is busy, but eyecatching and informative. I am ordering the whole series!

Before there was Andy Warhol, the ultimate in art cool, there was Picasso. And before there was Picasso, there was Matisse. Picasso and his cronies used to make fun of Matisse's primitive style and threw fake darts at Matisse's portrait of his daughter, and people laughed in the salons at Matisse's Joy of Life but no artist influenced Picasso more than Matisse, from his works to his introduction to African and Iberian art, Matisse was one of the few constants in Picasso's life, always keeping the paintings that he had of Matisse. These two heavyweights, more than anybody, have influenced the way we make art today. This books does a great job fleshing out the relationship between these two artists and how they affected each other in a well written and highly accesible format. An excellent book worthy of the excellent artists.

Excellent collection of Matisse's works. The drawings are so simple but tell a lot of the subject. All the drawings lack light but the reader is still able to see the full form of the subject. The drawings are also presented very clearly for the art student to study.

This book includes many protraits done by the great Matisse. They are all simple and elegant. Matisse fans should not be without this book.

Matisse Portraits by John Klein (associate professor of art history at the University of Missouri-Columbia) is a comprehensive survey and analysis of the artwork of Henri Matisse, who especially devoted himself to human figure and portraits of sitters. Klein goes a step further to provide an in-depth, scholarly commentary upon individual works and the aggregate body of Matisse's portraits. Filled with black-and-white and color illustrations of Matisse's artwork, Matisse Portraits is more than artbook - it is an art appreciation book, filled with discourse and thoughtful analysis. Highly recommended for academic and art school collections, as well as true art aficionados with an interest in the work of Henri Matisse.

As an artist who loves to paint and cook, this book really captures everything that i possible would love to take me to the south of france. Its beautiful colaboration of matisse paintings and tastes of recipes, really inspires one to want to paint a colourful table for dining. The recipes aren't exactly the normal cuisine you would desire to serve everyday however the colours and textures of foods play with those in his decorative work. Its just quite an inspirational book for those who love to master a composition like matisse did - my husband bought this book for me just because he knew i love matisse and i love to cook. Its a colourful book which you want to pick up and flip through just to take you to another place another time affecting all your senses and memories. Enjoy!