The Chefs-d'oœvre
The Chefs-d'oeuvre, a 1900 portfolio of art and architecture published in Philadelphia by G. Barrie and compiled by William Walton, reproduces exhibition masterpieces as plates for an educated general readership. Its pictures are single mounted plates: a monochrome engraving-like scene of figures in a stone interior, a warm hand-coloured street view of a doorway with a donkey, a dim interior of a reader at a window, and a crowded engraved scene of animals and figures by a railway car, suggesting strong tonal contrast, architectural settings and crowd composition for period-style design.
