"Authors use sixty-eight 18th-century French paintings from American museum collections to present a fascinating American social history through the lens of taste and collecting practices. Depictions of opulent fashion, court gatherings, and decadent pleasures appealed to late 19th- and early 20th-century American collectors. Neoclassical representations of Greek heroes, with stern lessons about democracy, ethics, and moral choices, had another appeal. Both inform our culture and society today and even feature several women artists as well as one of the first mixed-race painters in the Western canon."--Provided by publisher.