Book Competition

Apollo offers you the chance to win a superb free book

Simply answer the question below and you could win one of the finest art history books.

For our last competition prize we offered The Voice of Pistoletto, by Michelangelo Pistoletto and Alain Elkann (Rizzoli Ex Libris, $39.95).

We asked: In which year did Michelangelo Pistoletto first exhibit his Mirror Paintings?

Answer: 1963

Congratulations to Cristina McDowall, winner of this competition, drawn at random from the hundreds of correct answers we received.

This week’s competition prize is Paul Durand-Ruel: Memoirs of the First Impressionist Art Dealer (1831–1922), by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel (Flammarion, £32.00)

This extraordinary memoir of a visionary art dealer chronicles the emergence of the Impressionists and their controversial rise to success, providing an unparalleled record of the developments Durand-Ruel witnessed in the fin-de-siècle art world. Paul Durand-Ruel’s memoirs track his career as a patron and promoter of poverty-stricken and struggling Impressionist artists of the fin-de-siècle period. The young collector and gallery owner supported them emotionally and financially, and relentlessly promoted works by the likes of Degas, Manet and Millet – works now considered invaluable. His meticulous and detailed memoirs recount key events, from his grandparents’ desperate flight from the Terror in 1793, to his father’s early days collecting paintings to sell in his mother’s stationery shop, to his own extensive records of purchases.