FROM THE PUBLISHER

French painting occupied a modest place in European art before the 17th Century. Only after this date did hitherto largely anonymous practitioners give way to a pleiad of famous names: Nicolas Poussin, Georges de la Tour, Claude Lorrain, the Le Nain brothers￯﾿ﾽ

In the 18th and 19th Centuries, French painting is at its zenith. Today museums all over the world have canvases of Watteau, David, Ingres, Delacroix, Monet, Renoir, Matisse and many more.