This is Not Just a Painting
By Bernard Lahire, translated by Helen Morrison,
Polity, 450pp, £30/$45
Helen Morrison has undoubtedly done English readers a considerable service by translating Bernard Lahire’s 2015 book. Not merely for the contents of the book itself, but also for Lahire’s extraordinary approach to the subject matter. This surely must be one of the most comprehensive studies of any single piece of art ever written – in this instance Nicholas Poussin’s 1657 painting The Flight into Egypt. As wonderful as this book undoubtedly is in places, however, it’s also more than a little eccentric.
