Christian Bérard: Eccentric Modernist

Disappointing and pedestrian book of a very creative man. Unfortunately, there are far too many superfluous photographs of Berard and his buddies, and too few of his marvellous and whimsical illustrations. There are more portraits than necessary, particularly when Berard was arguably at his best working with paper and gouache. Often, on the odd page where one sees a rendering by the artist, the image is patchy and pixelated, as if it had been scaled larger than the image resolution. This kind of oversight is too sloppy for such a substantial tome, and one which has apparently been in development for some years.

Interesting artist