Acknowledgments One day about fifteen years ago, I walked into T. J. Clark's office at the University of California at Los Angeles and announced my intent to study the Impression- ists' abandonment of urban motifs in the i88os as a social way of explaining the "crisis" of Impressionism. Clark suggested that I investigate instead the many representations of prosti- tutes in French art and literature of the 18705. What seemed then to be merely a fascinating iconography to track - "images of women" - turned out to be a far richer and more important topic than I could have imagined at the time. r I owe my chief debt of gratitude to Tim Clark for both his help and his example. I've been fortunate also to find friendship, support, and high standards combined in Tom Crow, Serge Guilbaut, Nancy Troy, and Marty Ward. The encouragement over the long haul supplied by Carol Duncan, Sandra Hindman, Sarah Maza, Larry Silver, and David Van Zanten has been very important to me. And long before I ever met them, Linda Nochlin's and Griselda Pollock's work helped me a great deal. Special thanks go to Tom Crow, Nancy Ring, and Julia Sagraves. Tom's comments reig- nited work on a stalled project. Nancy's nonpareil help with matters both editorial and substan- tial enabled me to structure and write the book. Julia's careful reading of the text prompted a final key round of rewriting. I also benefited from suggestions made by anonymous readers for Yale University Press. James Clayson Cogbill just about prevented me from finishing this, but Neil Cogbill was a beacon of confidence and support when the project appeared swamped by teaching and domes- tic responsibilities. I daily regret that James Clayson did not live to see the completion of this book. He might not have read it, but he would have stopped passersby on the street to brag about it. My dissertation research in Paris was made possible by an Edward A. Dickson Fellowship in the History of Art from U.C.L.A. In Paris, I profited from the resources and helpfulness of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Archives Nationales, Archives de la Prefecture de Police, and Bibli- otheque de la Musee des Arts Decoratifs; and in Strasbourg, from the Bibliotheque Nationale and Institut de PHistoire de 1'Art. Generous private benefactors in Strasbourg and Wichita pro- vided critical financial help that assured the continuation of work on my Ph.D. thesis. I thank the University Research Grants Committee of Northwestern University for a timely award that helped to defray the cost of the photographs used in this book. I thank Patricia Barratt, Janet Cywrus, Neal Meltzer, Theodore Reff, and Richard Thomson for their help in locating repro- ductions. Finally, I am grateful for the steadfast interest and commitment of Judy Metro, senior editor at Yale University Press, and for the excellent editorial attention given a first book by XV Karen Gangel, manuscript editor.