8vo. 229pp, [1]. With a photographic frontispiece and a further seven photographic plates. Original publisher's navy cloth, printed paper lettering-piece to spine. Lightly rubbed and bumped, lettering-piece chipped and browned. Scattered spotting. Anthony Eden's copy, with his armorial bookplate FEP, an occasional pencil annotations in his hand.

The first edition of art critic Clive Bell's (1881-1964) compilation of essays (primarily reprinted from The New Republic and The Athenaeum) on the progress of early twentieth century movements; with monographs on Renoir, Matisse, Picasso, and fellow Bloomsbury Group member Duncan Grant.

Sir Anthony Eden (1897-1977), British foreign secretary (1935-38, 1940-45, and 1951-55) and Prime Minister (1955-1957). Following active service in the First World War, Eden read Oriental languages at Oxford. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1923. In 1935 he was appointed foreign secretary, a position he resigned in 1938 to protest Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Nazi Germany. When Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940, he was named secretary of state for war, and later during the Second World War once more served as foreign secretary. Eden succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister in 1955. In 1956, his failure to respond effectively during the Suez Crisis, and the subsequent loss of party and public support, would ultimately lead to his resignation from office in 1957. He was knighted in 1954 and created earl of Avon in 1961.