The Louvre: All The Paintings Hardcover – Illustrated, 1 Nov. 2011

My apologies for quoting from fellow art fans who have made at least three observations I myself have.Unfortunately I fall into the category of those who are never going to be able to leave this country. Getting to the Louve would be impossible and it probably takes at least a week to sit and study the work you wish to study. Although this wheelchair can be a bonus. Secondly you have to take into consideration the week you have just spent finding the damn paintings you want to see. I am not insinuating buying this book is better than going into the Louve but at the very very least....this can be an invaluable guide. The book will tell you the floor and also the room your painting are. ( so, buy it first before you set out to france and take notes on where it is you wish to go )This book is probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.One evening With the book on the desk I wanted a closer look at the detail of a piece of work, I bent the lamp over onto the book. The painting actually looked bloody wet, as if it had just been finished. Yes, some of the art looked a little rough around the edges but so would you if you had been around since the 14th Century.As some people have noted on other very large books with hundreds of pages it would of been sensible to put a ' Marker Ribbon ' for those who don't want to put bookmarks in the book.Secondly someone made the comment that one of the Taschen books was worth at least £100. I believe that this is well worth that very price.Now the down side. ( well, a little downer )The book comes with a CD-ROM.Well for many of us you would be better off using that as the damn bookmarkconsidering there are many of us who cannot get it to run ( all I can get is the introduction plus index ) I truly and foolishly believed in my ' fellow man.' That those who did NOT have a problem making it work would tell us what computer they where using, it's specifications and the model. Plus any of you who At First could not get it to work and found a fixORWhoever made the disc could fix it because funnily enough the disc enclosed with the Vatican Taschen does not work on our computers either.However, this is NOT enough of a problem for me to only give it 4 stars.You can also get beautiful metal paper thin Bookmarks that will complement your book. Also.....from Amazon!

Large, heavy, well printed on good quality paper with good reproductions. Range of sizes of photos - some large some small - so your favourites might not be reproduced as large as you would like - the price of being a comprehensive collection. (An excellent choice for anyone who scores books by their weight!).

Excellent book that covers the Louvre paintings in detail.

This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever bought. The images are clear and well presented and the text is very interesting.The only complaint I have is that the CD ROM which comes with the book does not seem to be fully compatible with either Windows XP (my main stand-alone computer on which I do all my graphics work) or Windows 10 (my laptop which I use for the Internet). The CD ROM opens on Windows XP and the index of artworks seem to cross-refer satisfactorily. However, the images seem to have been designed for a screen with much lower resolution than my Eizo 24" is set up for. When I try to enlarge them, they drift off to the right-hand side of the screen, so only half the picture is visible. On Windows 10, the index does not operate at all, so there is no way of looking up the artists or their works!So, Book: 5 stars, DVD: no stars - but the book alone is more than worth the money.

This is the definitive book to read and check BEFORE you visit the Louvre (or BEFORE you revisit the Louvre).The Louvre itself is a 'monster'. 95% of the visitors have no idea and just follow the herd - to get a glimpseof the Mona Lisa and then it's off to the gift shop...It's really pathetic...If you have checked and read this book - you will be well prepared, i.e. You'll know what you want to see and what not.IMPORTANT TIP: Not all the paintings exhibited in the Louvre are 'Important Masterpieces' - far from it.Check this book first and (depending on your tastes and interests) you will only need 2-3 days to get what youreally want.Book is excellent - most paintings are represented as small images, but you still can find out which ones youwanna see. It's the best and cheapest way to tackle the 'monster' that is the Louvre.Do not follow the 'herd' - buy this book first and read it.P.S.: Forget the DVD that is included - it is sub-par and not even worth of checking.Have fun!

You can see my full review on the Foolish Fish YouTube channel.The book could have been perfect if not for crumpled pages at regular intervals where the reams of paper were clearly mishandled during printing. I found a similar problem with the Florence book where some pages had black thumb prints all over them when I'd received the book still sealed in the original shrink-wrap.The awkward, painfully slow 1990's html image browser (that doesn't allow you to re-size the images, just to zoom in on a detail in a tiny window) that comes on a CD-ROM attached to the inside cover of the book does not work with any modern browser, and must be opened in Internet Explorer, but the good thing is that the images can easily be retrieved to a local folder and browsed with a proper image browsing software.The scope of the book, however, is monumental, and the commentary is exactly what you'd hope for from such a volume.All in all a recommendation.