Charles Deas and 1840s America (Volume 4) (The Charles M. Russell Center Series on Art and Photography of the American West) Hardcover – Illustrated, December 3, 2009

This book is a great piece of art-historical work on a lesser-known artist that absolutely deserves the full biographical and contextual treatment. Bravo to that. Also, the book is almost absurdly lavish in its illustrations -- virtually every painting, by Deas or otherwise, is illustrated in gloriously rich color. Clearly someone with deep pockets underwrote the publication of this book.The graphic design of the book, however, is very weak, with endless detail photos that offer nearly zero magnification over the full illustrations of paintings; these useless details clutter up the design and add nothing to the text. Also, oftentimes paintings by other artists are often given greater prominence, via full-page illustrations, than some of Deas's own work, which confuses the reader and diminishes the impact of Deas's art. It's almost as though the publisher was so intent on producing an "important" volume on the artist that they demanded it be larded with extra images as filler. That motivation is totally unfounded, given the strength of the text and the visual power of Deas's paintings.

Carol Clark has accomplished the magnificent and unprecedented feat of being the first person to create a book devoted to Charles Deas. He is one of America's great masters, after all. Yet, so little info about him was readily available.This is a gorgeous book that was obviously very expensive to produce. It's written very academically, with actually too many citations for my taste, but that's okay because her prose is super reader-friendly. She's definitely NOT one of those professorial windbags who love to hear themselves talk. In a refreshing change of literary pace, Carol Clark is a die-hard academic who writes like a normal human being. Where would we be without carefully cited academic literature? It provides the facts that act as a springboard for further discovery.My only criticisms (and only because nothing is perfect),this book includes quite a few pictures by other artists, and I don't always see the connection, so I find this a bit distracting at times from the works of Charles Deas. Works by copy artists are also included, and this also seems unnecessary. Still, I like the pictures by George Catlin (an important comparative study in this case), and when I look at Napoleon by Jacques Louis David, it's impossible not to imagine that this French artist inspired the works of Charles Deas.Three cheers (and five big fat stars, wish it could be six!) for Carol Clark. She has done an invaluable service to the art world, and has carved for herself a safe and permanent place in the history of American art.By the way, there's a new e-book just released about Charles Deas. It is said to reveal a freshly discovered long lost painting by him. Don't miss ARTIST UNKNOWN: The Life and Lost Works of Charles Deas Also read CRAZY HORSE APPEARING Both books feature priceless artifacts, including a painting by Charles Deas seen for the first time in over 150 years.