The Studios of Paris: The Capital of Art in the Late Nineteenth Century

For artists active in Paris between 1880 and 1914, surviving by one's art was exceedingly difficult, while financial success was denied to all but a few. This engaging study spotlights scores of unfamiliar as well as celebrated Parisian painters and sculptors who got by through their wits and talent. Nearly all of them strived to exhibit at the official Salon, as this conferred respectability; some artists sold their own works at auction, a nerve-racking and potentially disastrous ploy; others were lucky enough to have their pictures displayed at the Moulin Rouge, where Toulouse-Lautrec loitered to sketch the nightlife. For women, the job of painter's model was no less arduousan exhausting and boring task even at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Milner, author of Vladimir Tatlin and the Russian Avant Garde, explores romantic myths as he documents the stark realities of the City of Light. This wonderfully illustrated chronicle teems with paintings, drawings and period photographs of artists and their haunts. (August)