Green

[S]umptuously illustrated... These are books to look at, but they are also books to read... Individual colors find their being only in relation to each other, and their cultural force depends on the particular instance of their use. They have no separate life or essential meaning. They have been made to mean, and in these volumes that human endeavor has found its historian. --Michael Gorra, New York Review of Books Pastoureau's engaging cultural history of the color green tackles art history and color theory... With the look and feel of an artbook, this book holds equal amounts of substance of in the text... His anecdotes are insightful, the references occasionally delightfully esoteric... [H]e gives this substantial discussion further contemporary relevance. --Publishers Weekly Beautifully illustrated. --Daily Mail From the ample green gown in Jan van Eyck's painting The Arnolfini Wedding to the chartreuse and shamrock in Paolo Veronese's work, from Paul Cezanne's apples to Kees van Dongen's Fauvist use of mint and jungle greens, there's much to sink your eyes into. --Mary Louise Schumacher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel As this beautifully illustrated work shows, the 'uneasiness' of being green is what makes its story so interesting. --Fiona Capp, Sydney Morning Herald [C]easelessly fascinating and erudite. --Michael Glover, Independent We absolutely loved this book and we didn't merely read it, we read it twice... Colors are not just colors: they have a history and we can't imagine it ever being superseded by anything more than what Michel Pastoureau has accomplished in his monumental work, Green. Designers of all ilks everywhere need to read this book, and the prior colors (Blue and Black) and future colors he comes out with as well. The thought process, planning and impeccable research that must have gone into this book is prodigious... [T]hough Kermit said it's not easy being green, reading this book is an easy decision! ... This is a hefty tome that lends credence to the academic side of fashion theory... Pastoureau has provided us with a tour de force erudite approach to color... [P]ut it on your Christmas gift list for anyone in the fashion or art world. It's a must to own, and so much fun as a read. Academically speaking, it's popular culture at its best... Green is highly recommended by Whom You Know! --Whom You Know [Pastoureau's] pleasantly rambling illustrated narrative charts the changing place of green in Western thought, art and life, from prehistory to the present day. --Caroline Bugler, World of Interiors [S]prightly... Green is a dash through domains and contexts as varied yet related as optics, clothing manufacture, vexillology, literature, color lexicons, and the history of painting... The point, Pastoureau emphasizes, is that green is, among the colors, exquisitely unstable--both in color theory and in real-life manufacture... Pastoureau is fascinating in describing the long decline of green in the period just before the Age of Revolution. --Eric Banks, Chronicle Review Michel Pastoureau's Green: The History of a Color is an interesting look at how this sometimes forgotten hue has been perceived in art, fashion, and culture. Beautiful art and a thorough historical survey make this book an irresistible read. --Traditional Home Praise for the French edition: A beautiful presentation of a long-unloved color. --Daphne Betard, Beaux-Arts Praise for the French edition: A beautiful book that opens the windows wide. --Marie Chaudey, La Vie