The Chefs-d'oœvre
The Chefs-d'oeuvre is a 1900 portfolio of art and architecture reproductions published in Philadelphia by G. Barrie and credited to William Walton, drawn from Paris exhibitions for an art-collecting public. The plates are dark, tonal photogravure-style reproductions of paintings and prints, showing interior scenes of stairs, a dining table with candles, a seated woman by a fireplace, and a seated nude. A designer might take their low-key lighting, deep shadows and warm brown monochrome palette as a model for moody period imagery.
