Martin Luther College

Chronicles the origins of Impressionism against the backdrop of the artistic and cultural events of the nineteenth century as exemplified in the work of two artists--Ernest Meissonier and Edouard Manet.

Paris in the 1860s and 1870s was supposedly a centre of modern life. This book argues that the art of Manet and his contemporaries was an attempt to give form to that modernity.

Paris, 1860s. For Mimi Bisset, survival is everything on the streets of Paris. She tries to forget the pain of losing her daughter Colette, who was born out of wedlock and forcibly given away to a rich family. But Mimi's world turns upside down after a chance encounter with handsome artist Édouard Manet. Boldly posing for portraits on Manet's chaise longue, Mimi feels a wild freedom—and as Manet teaches her how to layer the vivid paints on canvas...

"The Savarays are at the center of bourgeois Parisian society, as supporters of the Impressionist movement, friends of Édouard Manet, and citizens relatively unaffected by the Franco-Prussian war raging beyond their estate--until their beloved adopted son Henri, a burgeoning artist, disappears early one morning and 18-year-old Aimee Savaray sets out to find him. But Henri doesn't want to be found, and only one member of the family knows why. As Aimee...

"In a world filled with great museums and great paintings, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is the reigning queen. Her portrait rules over a carefully designed salon, one that was made especially for her in a museum that may seem intended for no other purpose than to showcase her virtues. What has made this portrait so renowned, commanding such adoration? And what of other works of art that continue to enthrall spectators: What makes the Great Sphinx...