Paris, 1890s. The city glitters with possibility but starves those who refuse to bend. Simeon Erard is a painter of genuine vision trapped in the grinding poverty of artistic obscurity, painting in a cramped studio while ambition and hunger war within him. When the prosperous Anthon family arrives to view his work, their bemused incomprehension before his most personal canvasa daring portrait of a woman in her bathreveals exactly how far his art stands from the world's comfortable expectations. Through Erard's relationships with this family and the choices they represent, Herrick constructs a sharp examination of what it costs to pursue authentic expression in a society that rewards compromise. The novel traces one man's agonizing negotiation between artistic integrity and survival, between the gospel he preaches about freedom and the compromises his body demands. It is a period portrait of the eternal artist dilemma: create for posterity or eat today.
