The Luncheon on the Grass

The eyes of a young woman in an arresting red shawl stare at the viewer through the glass panes of a door. She is outside looking in, and for a moment her glance catches our eye, though she will shortly move on. Once she does, we...

James McCabe, the American visitor, was convinced that Louis Napoleon had enacted Meryon’s “Loi Solaire.” His account of Second Empire Paris is especially revealing when placed alongside Henry Tuckerman’s. Tuckerman saw through the sheen of imperial splendor to the authoritarian power it disguised....