Women on a Café Terrace, Evening

~Cassatt’s decision to take up residence in Paris in 1874 put an end to the romantic, nomadic life she had led for almost eight years (figure 37). At age thirty, she may have been unconsciously ready for a more...

If he time-honored signifier of social difference is clothing. In Thorstein Veblen’s words, “Our apparel is always in evidence and affords an indication of our pecuniary standing to all observers at first glance...

There is a dynamic relationship between depicted light – the light effects represented in Impressionist paintings – and the inherent luminosity of the materials and methods of handling used by the painters. Understanding this relationship is crucial in evaluating the modernity and meanings of Impressionist painting. The physical properties of their chosen materials facilitated...

The flâneur, the purposeful male stroller, was a principal performer in the theater of daily life in Paris in mid-century, if we judge by his importance in writings of the era. A journalist, writer, or illustrator, he looked about with the acute eye of a detective, sizing up persons and events with a clinical detachment as though natural events could tell him their own...