Interior Scenes: Watercolors from the Mario Praz and Chigi Collection

Mario Praz (1896-1982) was particularly sensitive to representations of interiors. The watercolors dating from 1800 to 1870 that he collected bear witness to this. He perceived in them the soul of things and the living presence of lost time. Recognized as one of the great minds of the 20^th century, Praz taught English and Italian literature at the University of Manchester and then in Rome – and more particularly, the Romantic movement whose founding themes he deciphered. The Romantic Agony which he published in 1930, on the development of erotic sensibility at the end of the 19^th century, earned him considerable fame. A great traveler, journalist, historian and art lover whose favorite period was the neoclassical, he devoted part of his energies to putting together an astonishing collection of furniture, objects, and paintings from the 1800s from which he drew the  novel La Casa della Vita (1968). His preserved Roman apartment has become the Museo Praz, one of the new legendary places in Rome.

21.5 x 25.5 cm

96 pages

53 black and white and color illustrations

ISBN: 978-2-9092-8373-9

Text in French only