Sirène

1934 · Best.-Nr. 1026H35 — Paris: Les Editions d’Art et d’Histoire 1934-1935. Leather. Near Fine. 13.5" by 9.5". Various. The first French edition of Osvald Siren"s history of Chinese painting illustrated with 228 plates spanning its development from antiquity to the Yuan dynasty. Uniformly rebound in modern half calf with marbled paper boards. The first French edition following Siren"s English-language A History of Early Chinese Painting published in London in 1933. illustrated with 228 plates in heliotypie reproducing Chinese paintings held in public and private collections. Collated complete. Published as part of the Annales du Musee Guimet Bibliotheque d"Art Nouvelle Serie IV. Complete in two volumes. Compromising: 1934 Volume I: Des origines a l"epoque Song. 1935 Volume II: L"epoque Song et l"epoque Yuan. An impressive scholarly history of Chinese painting from its earliest surviving traditions through the Yuan dynasty tracing its development across the Han Six Dynasties Tang Five Dynasties Song and Yuan periods. Osvald Siren 1879-1966 was a Finnish-born Swedish art historian and one of the pioneering Western scholars of Chinese art. Formerly Professor of Art History at Stockholm University and later curator and head of the painting and sculpture department at the Nationalmuseum Stockholm. A richly illustrated survey by one of the foundational European scholars of Chinese art. Uniformly rebound in modern half calf with marbled paper boards. Externally very smart with only very slight rubbing to the extremities. Internally firmly bound. Pages generally bright and clean with the odd light spot. A few pencil annotations to margins of plates. Leaves uncut leaves to volume II frequently unopened. Near Fine Les Editions d’Art et d’Histoire hardcover