"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 splendor of Napoleon III's Second Empire, and its dramatic fall 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 nineteenth 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 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 artistic expression, it was about competing visions of a world drastically changed by technology, politics, and personal freedom."--BOOK JACKET.