A Few Collectors

"Funny and whimsical. There are wonderful asides ... It is also poignant." —The New York Times Beloved Parisian artist Pierre Le-Tan, known for designing New Yorker magazine covers and collaborations with fashion houses, summons up memories of inveterate art collectors in this utterly charming illustrated volume. He evokes fascinating, sometimes troubled figures through an array of intriguing and curious tales. With seventy of his distinctive pen and ink drawings—in vibrant color with meticulous cross-hatching—A Few Collectors opens a window onto the vast or minuscule world created by collectors out of a mix of extravagance and obstinacy. It recounts encounters in Paris, the Côte d’Azur, North Africa, London and New York, where Le-Tan’s subjects have amassed a range of treasures. Some involve famed figures like former Louvre Museum director Pierre Rosenberg. Others are insolvent aristocrats, princes of film and fashion, expatriate dandies, and flat-out obsessive eccentrics. Le-Tan devotes perhaps his finest chapter to himself.

"With exclusive bonus content"--Front cover.

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'An impressive debut, expertly researched and compelling narrated' - Patricia O'Reilly (The First Rose of Tralee)Love, art, and obsession, set between Nazi occupied Paris and rural Ireland. As the Germans advance on Paris in 1940, a young Jewish girl, Sylvie Vasseur, is sent by her father to rural Ireland to live with the Courtney family. He also sends his valuable art collection - including a portrait of Sylvie by the renowned Mateus, Girl on a Swing. Sylvia is seduced by the narcissistic elder son Nicholas Courtney when she is eighteen, but he abandons her when he discovers she is pregnant. To avoid the inevitable social stigma, Sylvie marries his brother Peter. In Dublin, she becomes involved in the art scene, achieving critical acclaim as a painter. But, trapped in a loveless marriage, she continues to be obsessed with Nicholas. Until, unexpectedly, secrets from her father's past emerge, leading her to question everything she once believed. Shortly after, she is found drowned on a Wexford beach. Seventeen years later, Claire Howard, struggling art historian, is hired by the Courtney family to record Sylvie's lifeworks. Fascinated by the artist and working with Sylvie's son Sam, Claire travels between Dublin and Paris, eventually unravelling a labyrinth of deceit and lies that threaten to endanger her life.

Catherine the Great of Russia acquired art voraciously. Cosmetics magnate Helena Rubinstein collected African and Victorian glass. Couturier Coco Chanel amassed an enormous hoard of French eighteenth-century furniture. This fascinating book offers the first-ever look at these enterprising women -- along with Madame de Pompadour, Empress Josephine, Marjorie Merriweather Post, Gertrude Stein, Mary Cassatt and Peggy Guggenheim, among others -- and tells how they assembled significant and valuable collections of art, silver, jewelry, textiles, ceramics, photography, fossils and much more.