The illustrated biography of the American pioneer of modern dance by the American painter, early exponent of abstract art, and collector (New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1933). 81 pp. Signed and inscribed by Dreier, "Pour Jacques Villon avec mes souhaites sinceres, Redding [CT] le 12 mai 1936." With numerous evocative black and white photographs by a host of contributors and a striking color frontispiece with "Abstract psychological portrait of Shawn" by Dreier. Striped shiny silver decorative boards with light staining along the lower edge, in a toned and stained dust jacket. Internally very fine throughout.

"Though she never achieved the name recognition of her contemporaries, Katherine Sophie Dreier first joined the modern art world of the early 20th century as a painter. She later became more prominent as a collector, educator, and scholar, of whom the critic Aline Saarinen wrote, 'Modern Art has known no other so fervent a propagandist.'" (Guggenheim Museum, New York) She was "Suzanne Duchamp’s [Villon's sister] greatest champion in the United States." (Talia Kwartler, "Suzanne Duchamp, Katherine S. Dreier, and “Semi-Abstract” Painting," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin, 2020–2021, p. 76)