BELLAS ARTES

It was the Belle Époque, a time before air travel or radio, at the brink of a revolution in photography and filmmaking, when Burton Holmes (1870–1958) began a lifelong journey to bring the world home. From the grand boulevards of Paris to China’s Great Wall, from the construction of the Panama Canal to the 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Holmes delighted in finding “the beautiful way around the world” and made a career of sharing his stories, colorful photographs, and films with audiences across America. He coined the term “travelogue” in 1904 to advertise his unique performance and thrilled audiences with two-hour sets of stories timed to projections of multihued, hand-painted glass-lantern slides and some of the first “moving pictures.

Henry Bourne’s photographs of the residences and workspaces of a who’s who of creative people open windows onto the groundbreaking design approaches and trends of the last three decades. For nearly thirty years, Bourne has been photographing the residences and studios of, or those designed by, some of the world’s most important artists, architects, designers, and innovators. Culture and society are constantly evolving, and changes, both aesthetic and sociological, are reflected in our physical surroundings. Spaces and portraits in this volume range from the Upstate New York studio of artist Richard Prince, Vincent Van Duysen’s early apartment in Antwerp, and Marc Newson’s residences (his modern former bachelor pad as well as the more textured apartment he shares with Charlotte Stockdale today) to the joyfully chaotic London atelier of artist Paula Rego, the Villa Volpi by architect Tomaso Buzzi near Rome, the London studio of artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster—before and after its sleek renovation, designed by architect David Adjaye.

Ten gardens made in Italy by the most respected Italian garden architect: this is a book for lovers of greenery and the Italian landscape. The ten gardens brought together in this book — located in different regions of Italy, from the wetlands of Piedmont to the gentle hills of Tuscany, from the lush Riviera to the sunny coasts of the South — reflect the variety of the Italian territory and its extraordinary biodiversity. In his gardens, Paolo Pejrone tackles the task of designing greenery with great humility, placing himself at the service of nature and never vice versa. He respects the genius loci, plans seasonal blooms, prioritizes native plants, and studies exposure to sun and shade to minimize watering needs and make the most of the land's resources. In full harmony with the rhythm of nature, Pejrone's gardens are a manifesto of sobriety and sustainability.

This comprehensive monograph is an exclusive look inside the château that inspired the design of Versailles and today continues to enchant visitors and film directors alike. Vaux-le-Vicomte’s rich history began in 1641 when infamous French finance minister Nicolas Fouquet, the original owner, surrounded himself with the most skilled and talented artisans of the time: the architect Louis Le Vau, the painter Charles Le Brun, and the garden designer André Le Nôtre, to create a perfect harmony between architecture and landscape. The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte and its spectacular gardens fascinated Louis XIV and were the inspira­tion for Versailles. Classified as a historical monument since 1875 under the impetus of the owner at the time, the castle of Vaux-le-Vicomte quickly became a model of the artistic genius of the seventeenth century. This volume traces the château’s history from the seventeenth century through the Belle Époque, World War I, and its public opening in 1968. Exclu­sive photography and archival documents offer unprecedented access to the château, furnishings, and gardens, and illuminate the extraordinary secrets of court life and centuries of celebrations that include the enchanting candlelit tours held today.