78 - BOYER D'AGEN (pseudonym of Auguste Boyé). The Beauty of Women in Art. A deluxe album featuring 53 reproductions of paintings.

BOYER D'AGEN (pseudonym of Auguste Boyé). The Beauty of Women in Art. A deluxe album featuring 53 reproductions of paintings. An important monograph on the artistic representation of women through 53 paintings by the finest modern artists. A beautiful copy in a mosaic-bound volume, signed by Flammarion Vaillant. Paris, Éditions Lapina et Cie, n.d. [CIRCA 1900] Folio size, blue half-shagreen bound with a gold fillet, spine with 4 cold-stamped raised bands, mosaic composition of cream morocco, ochre, tan, and light green in the center of the spine, depicting the bust of a woman emerging from the water; author and title in gold lettering; marbled paper endpapers and linings; gilt head on endpapers, cover plates preserved (the front cover illustrated with a pasted-in plate) and mounted on endpapers (binding signed Flammarion Vaillant). XX, 1 f. (table of engravings), 53 text leaves, and 53 heliogravure plates, mounted on heavy-weight paper. Spine and part of the front cover faded, scuffing, margins slightly browned, slight transfer from the plates. First edition of this album featuring 53 reproductions of paintings by the greatest modern painters, each accompanied by an aesthetic and critical analysis written by Boyer d’Agen, a man of letters and art critic. It opens with a preface by art historian Armand Dayot, tracing the depiction of the nude and the female portrait through the ages, from Antiquity to the late 19th century, including the Renaissance and the 18th century. A classic among Belle Époque art books, particularly sought after for the meticulous care taken in the photogravure by the printer-publisher Lapina. A fine copy in a mosaic-bound edition.