A Welcome from the Author

[ross_king]

Dear Readers,

French Impressionism needs little by way of an introduction. Today it's one of the most popular forms of artistic expression in history.

Yet in the 1860s and 1870s, ironically, painters such as Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Paul Cézanne suffered tremendous difficulties with the critics (who attacked them), the public (who mocked them), and the collectors (who ignored them). Meanwhile an arrogant and eccentric artist named Ernest Meissonier (someone who does need an introduction today) was enjoying critical acclaim and tumultuous popularity.

In discussing The Judgment of Paris this month, we'll follow the lives, careers, debates, and controversies of these painters, and even their sword-duels, over the course of a critical decade in Paris.

Ross