Picasso paints a portrait

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Evelyne Lever

"In this biography, French historian Evelyne Lever chronicles the extraordinary life of the most famous and influential mistress of Louis XV: Jeanne-Antoinette de Pompadour. This seductive, astute and resilient woman was destined to be both adored and reviled by the Court and the French public because of her relationship with one of the most powerful men in Europe, yet she was also to wield enormous influence on the culture, politics and military future of France, with an authority that far exceeded any previously exerted by an official mistress.". "The incredible story of how a bourgeois girl of questionable parentage would rise to the highest ranks of French society, consolidate her position at Court and maintain a twenty-year relationship with Louis XV begins with a fortune-teller's prophecy that one day the young Jeanne-Antoinette would be the mistress of a King. In spite of the difficulties presented by her background, by the age of twenty-four the beautiful Jeanne-Antoinette had indeed become the favorite of the monarch. The implications - both personal and political - of their relationship were far-reaching, and Lever skillfully illustrates how Madame de Pompadour gradually played the role not only of official mistress but also of France's second queen."--BOOK JACKET.

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Nancy Plain

A biography of the painter, author, and ethnographer who devoted himself to recording Indian life, not only in this country but in South America and Asia.

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Pamela Allara

In this generously illustrated chronicle of the life and work of prolific painter and bohemian eccentric Alice Neel, Pamela Allara shows how portraits from a career that spanned the 1920s to the 1970s constitute a virtual gallery of American cultural history. While some of Neel's portraits graced the covers of publications like Ms. and Time, most of her subjects were unknowns - the marginalized, the disenfranchised, the oppressed.

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Debra Tate

Considered by many to be the most beautiful woman of her generation, Sharon Tate remains a fascinating pop icon and a poster child for the 1960s. The few films she made during her brief career have secured her position as a Hollywood legend. Over forty years since her last film, Sharon's spirit and charisma lives strong in the memories of those who knew her best. Her sister Debra celebrates Sharon's life and career, her influence as a fashion icon throughout the world, and in effect presents a sociological portrait of the 1960s-- its youth culture, the sexual revolution, the rise of independent cinema, and Hollywood's changing studio system.