Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism
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While the Civil War raged in America, another very different revolution was beginning to take shape across the Atlantic, in the studios of Paris: The artists who would make Impressionism the most popular art form in history were showing their first paintings amidst scorn and derision from the French artistic establishment. Indeed, no artistic movement has ever been, at its inception, quite so controversial. The drama of its birth, played out on canvas, would at times resemble a battlefield; and, as Ross King reveals, Impressionism would reorder both history and culture as it resonated around the world.The Judgment of Paris chronicles the dramatic decade between two famous exhibitions—the scandalous Salon des Refuses in 1863 and the first Impressionist showing in 1874—set against the rise and dramatic fall of Napoleon III and the Second Empire after the Franco-Prussian War. A tale of many artists, it revolves around the lives of two, described as "the two poles of art"—Ernest Meissonier, the most famous and successful painter of the 19th century, hailed for his precision and devotion to history; and Edouard Manet, reviled in his time, who nonetheless heralded the most radical change in the history of art since the Renaissance. Out of the fascinating story of their parallel lives, illuminated by their legendary supporters and critics—Zola, Delacroix, Courbet, Baudelaire, Whistler, Monet, Hugo, Degas, and many more—Ross King shows that their contest was not just about Art, it was about competing visions of a rapidly changing world. With a novelist's skill and the insight of an historian, King recalls a seminal period when Paris was the artistic center of the world, and a revolutionary movement had the power to electrify and divide a nation.The New York Times - William GrimesThe rise of Manet and the fall of Meissonier provide the narrative spine for The Judgment of Paris, Ross King's spirited account of the decade-long battle between France's officially sanctioned history painters and the wild tribe of upstarts contemptuously dismissed as "impressionists." It is, in its broad outlines, a familiar story, but Mr. King, the author of "Brunelleschi's Dome," tells it with tremendous energy and skill. It is hard to imagine a more inviting account of the artistic civil war that raged around the Paris Salons of the 1860's and 70's, or of the outsize personalities who transformed the way the world looked at painting.
List of IllustrationsxiChapter 1Chez Meissonier1Chapter 2Modern Life13Chapter 3The Lure of Perfection26Chapter 4Mademoiselle V.36Chapter 5Dreams of Genius43Chapter 6Youthful Daring48Chapter 7A Baffling Maze of Canvas56Chapter 8The Salon of Venus73Chapter 9The Tempest of Fools81Chapter 10Famous Victories92Chapter 11Young France101Chapter 12Deliberations113Chapter 13Room M121Chapter 14Plein Air132Chapter 15A Beastly Slop144Chapter 16The Apostle of Ugliness151Chapter 17Maitre Velazquez159Chapter 18The Jury of Assassins167Chapter 19Monet or Manet?175Chapter 20A Flash of Swords184Chapter 21Marvels, Wonders and Miracles192Chapter 22Funeral for a Friend206Chapter 23Maneuvers217Chapter 24A Salon of Newcomers227Chapter 25Au Bord de la Mer233Chapter 26Mademoiselle Berthe241Chapter 27Flying Gallops248Chapter 28The Wild Boar of the Batignolles257Chapter 29Vaulting Ambitions265Chapter 30The Prussian Terror272Chapter 31The Last Days of Paris281Chapter 32A Carnival of Blood293Chapter 33Days of Hardship310Chapter 34The Apples of Discord318Chapter 35A Ring of Gold327Chapter 36Pure Haarlem Beer332Chapter 37Beyond Perfection342Chapter 38The Liberation of Paris349Epilogue: Finishing Touches362Political Timeline375Acknowledgments379Notes381Bibliography423Index437
