Long trip to Louisville, so I listened to a cd set called "The Judgement of Paris". It starts cataloging the personality and direction of the artist most emulated and admired in Paris in the Third Empire, Messonier. The man seemed to be mired in detail, carrying his quest for the same to unreasoning lengths. (Which included posing himself as Napoleon, both clothed and unclothed). Manet was his contemporary and a more unlikely pair of artists could not be imagined. Manet rather enjoyed pulling the collective legs of the ruling art community, most ostensibly via "Le Dejeuner sur le Herb" . Thus adding fuel to a tiny blaze of dissention which became the conflagration of Impressionism.