Kinda old and was in French, but my dad owned “L’encyclopédie tout-connaitre” (know-all encyclopedia) and it was wonderful. It was also 24 volumes and each was

Kinda old and was in French, but my dad owned “L’encyclopédie tout-connaitre” (know-all encyclopedia) and it was wonderful. It was also 24 volumes and each was quite large but not thick. It had amazing illustrations and introduced anyone famous born before the 70s, great pieces of arts and various countries. Each subject was 2 to 8 page of texts with one or 2 illustration per page. It’s the closest to what you’re looking for. An example of what it looked like: https://imgur.com/uzYpb32 https://imgur.com/uzYpb32 I don’t know if there’s anything similar in English and modern, but I have DK’s guide to classical music and their History Book. And they are concise enough.