This beautiful book is in great condition.

" In this book, Gaetan Picon argues that events in the year 1863 marked the beginning of a new age in painting. This was the year of the Salon des Refuses in Paris in which Manet exhibited his Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe and in so doing, caused an explosion in the world of art, and historically, represented a dramatic break wit the past....."

As reviewed by G. Dorfman:

This is the finest introduction to modernism as it relates specifically to painting. Picon was an intellectual and a prose stylist on the level of the great french phenomenologists but is often more lucid than they are. He does not show off but wears his learning lightly. He also had an eye for painting that sets him apart from the usual critic; a man of culture with an ability to martial and frame his arguments and at the same time excise unimportant incidentals. This book was a formidable achievement when it appeared and at this point it seems unlikely it will ever be replaced. If you love art, snap it up!