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This past year, I must have been "good", part of the time anyway, because 2 terrific new art books arrived for Christmas. Since both are ones you wouldn't be likely to find in a typical bookstore, I wanted to offer a brief description of each and info on how to go about getting them for anyone who is interested. 

Fantin-Latour -- Figures Et Fleurs by Paul de Roux.

Books on Fantin-Latour's paintings aren't always easy to come by so it was a wonderful surprise to receive one I hadn't seen. This book is written in French, appears to be a catalog from a show and was published in 1995. It is no longer in print so the price will vary by seller but it contains some beautiful reproductions with exceptionally nice color, and a few of the paintings were ones I hadn't run across before. Not a large book --it's dimensions are 9.25"x 7.75"x 1/2" -- 63 pages with 35 color reproductions. The best way to find a copy would probably be from a used bookseller or by doing an online search of the ISBN number.

The second book is a recent publication but to my knowledge the only way to get a copy is through the Zorn Museum in Sweden.

Zorn's Studio -- The Artist's Materials and Techniques by Emma Jansson  ISBN 978-91-983701-5-7 . Written in English, 151 pages, this book is filled with many wonderful color reproductions but also includes a lot of expert analysis and advanced photographic imaging that reveal some of the specific ways Zorn was able to create his magic. There are photos of his materials and interesting discussions on his use of color, texture, luminosity,compositional changes, etc. Spoiler alert --sometimes the Zorn Palette was expanded to include more than 4 pigments.

Since the friend who gifted me this book is 'internet challenged' I did the ordering online which may sound a bit complicated but was actually very simple and efficient. Just send an email to [email protected] and they will reply with a PayPal link for submitting the fee which when I ordered was between 50-55 US dollars and included shipping. A PayPal account is not required --only a credit card. An email showed up soon thereafter with a tracking number and about 2 weeks later the book arrived via USPS. 

"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all." -- Abraham Lincoln