The authors of these monographs on six French painters were contemporaries of Flaubert and Zola. Their interpretation of French painting is founded on intimate knowledge of documents connected with the subject. Their texts today serve as miniature surveys of the best French paintings of the period, authentic, entertaining reading. An Introduction and biographical notes precede the monographs on Watteau, Boucher, Chardin, La Tour, Greuze and Fragonard.