The Fauves (1962) — Jean-Paul Crespelle

New York Graphic Society | ISBN: none | Condition: Good | Sold by Crappy Old Books

Behold the wild beasts of paint—though thankfully they don’t bite, unless you count the color red snapping at your retinas. Jean-Paul Crespelle’s The Fauves (1962) is a gloriously illustrated tour through that brief but blazing moment when Henri Matisse, André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, and friends decided polite Impressionist dabs just weren’t loud enough. Instead, they slathered their canvases with violent blues, radioactive oranges, and greens so green they’d make your houseplants blush.

This is not your average art history textbook—it’s a safari. You get the sense Crespelle is introducing each painter like a flamboyant zoo exhibit: “Here we see Derain in his natural habitat, armed with a paintbrush the size of a harpoon, aiming straight at your visual cortex.” The book captures the chaos and charm of the Fauves, who were called “wild beasts” by a scandalized critic and said, in essence, “yep, that’s us.”

Why this copy matters:

• Published 1962 by the New York Graphic Society, with the kind of lush reproductions that make you wonder how they crammed so much pigment into paper.

• Condition: Good. Like an untamed lion in a slightly scuffed cage, it’s seen some years but remains fierce, intact, and ready to roar on your bookshelf.

• No ISBN. That’s right—it’s from the dignified pre-barcode era, when books relied on charm, not numbers, to find a home.

• Crappy Old Books stamp of approval. We know a good beast when we see one.

So if your living room needs a little savagery, or if you secretly wish your beige walls could scream in cobalt, scarlet, and viridian—this book is your license to unleash. Warning: prolonged reading may inspire you to repaint the bathroom vermillion with turquoise stripes.

Keep browsing: See more Art books Other books by Jean-Paul Crespelle