Book of Interest - The Judgment of Paris

Ross King's book extols the virtues of one of the 19th century's renowned artist, Ernest Meissonier in contrast to the incipient Impressionists, one of whom, namely Claude Monet, said, "It really is appallingly difficult to do something which is complete in every respect, and I think most people are content with mere approximations." A big, hmmmm, to this.

Might be a book to relish especially if you are keen on the history of art and how movements, in this case, impressionism, came about. 

You can see some of Meissonier's work below.

http://ca.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=ArAUgAjwpwOqzuQJnbyTrTQt17V_;_ylc=X1MDMjE0MjYyMzUzMwRfcgMyBGZyA3lmcC10LTcxNQRuX2dwcwMwBG9yaWdpbgNjYS55YWhvby5jb20EcXVlcnkDRXJuZXN0IE1laXNzb25pZXIEc2FvAzA-?p=Ernest+Meissonier&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-715