Phaidon Press Revives Classic Art Monographs with New Series Featuring Raphael, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh

Phaidon Press is reissuing its classic art book series with redesigned volumes, beginning with monographs on Raphael, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh. The publisher, founded in Vienna in 1923, has a long history of producing accessible, high-quality art books, including E.H. Gombrich's The Story of Art, which has sold 7 million copies. The new Classics series was initiated by current owner Leon Black after he saw original volumes in the archive and recalled owning them as a student. Each reissued volume features a critical introduction by a contemporary expert; Walter Liedtke, the Metropolitan Museum's Dutch curator who died in 2015, wrote the preface for the Rembrandt book. The first print run of the original Van Gogh monograph in the series sold 55,000 copies in two days, demonstrating public demand. Design for the new series was handled by Astrid Stavro of Atlas Design in Palma de Mallorca, featuring black covers with yellow fore edges and tipped-in plates. The next set of volumes will cover Botticelli, Vermeer, and Renoir. Senior editor Diane Fortenberry oversaw the series from Phaidon's London office, noting the selection criteria included spanning Renaissance, Baroque, and Post-Impressionism periods.