This title is a beautiful example of Goupil’s photogravure process applied to the translation of dimensional art onto a printed page – a quest that had eluded publishers and inventors for half a century.
The latest triumphs of reproductive art have been brought to bear upon veritable works of genius, with the result that we have before us one of the most charming books that ever issued from the press… With the production of this book, the difficulty vanishes, for the illustrations are not merely reproductions of the terra cottas. They have transformed the sculptures into pictures, and we can therefore compare with the masterpiece’s of the painters art, and certainly they will not suffer by the comparison… Messrs. Goupil have been most successful in production of the photogravures; they display brilliancy of light and shade, with a delicacy of tint worthy of praise. [1]