My first book is out! 📖

Richly illustrated, this book presents the often little-known life stories of major figures in painting and offers a fresh perspective on their canvases—far removed from the academic descriptions

Dear reader,

I hope you're doing well!

First, thank you. Thanks to your support, Cool Stories About Art has grown further than I ever imagined: 320,000 of you on Instagram, 200,000 reading this newsletter, and the first art publication in France on Substack.

Today I am proud to show you what came out of it.

📖 My first book (only in french for the moment)

Destins d'artistes. A different history of art. Published by Larousse. 336 pages, hardback.

What the textbooks leave out. Behind Raphael, Rembrandt, Monet, Picasso and Kahlo are artists shaped by their desires, their secrets and their wounds.

• Thwarted loves

• Fierce rivalries

• Ambition and betrayal

• Trials and scandals

• Exiles and manhunts

• Patrons and kings

Here are the first lines of the Michelangelo chapter:

Florence, September 1530. A man waits in the dark. Alone. His eyes fixed on the dying embers of the fire. Boredom gnaws at him, but fear keeps him awake. For three weeks he has been hiding in a cramped room, concealed beneath the Medici sacristy…

Inside

• 57 stories, from Giotto to Hilma af Klint

• 5 periods, from the Renaissance to abstraction

• 13 cards to recognise a style at a glance

• 336 pages, large format, hardback

Enough to never again spend eleven seconds in front of a painting.

What the first readers say

I opened the book to read one chapter. I read six in a row. Claire

I had followed the Instagram account for two years. The book goes much further, and the object itself is beautiful. Nadia

The book is in French. Other languages will follow, I hope. If you read French, it is out now, and you can turn the pages of the real book here:

336 pages, hardback, 29.99 €. On Amazon, Fnac, Cultura, E.Leclerc and in your local bookshop.

None of it exists without you. 🙏

Thank you for reading Cool Stories About Art, and enjoy the stories. ❤️

Julien

P.S. 📩 If someone around you reads French and loves paintings, forward them this email.

P.P.S. 🇫🇷 Vous lisez le français ? Destins d'artistes est en librairie depuis le 21 octobre. destins.coolstoriesabout.art