Dan Franck

A cultural history of Paris in the early twentieth century profiles the painters, writers, poets, and sculptors who transformed the city into a hotbed of artistic innovation during the period.

Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse, and the Birth of Modern Art

Bohemian Paris

Giovanni Garcia-Fenech 

This book probably drives art historians crazy. Franck makes no distinction between actual events and apocryphal stories, and there's no sense of the artists' accomplishments and place in history (it devotes about the same amount of attention to Soutine, Cocteau, and Foujita, for example). It's also a chronological mess - Apollinaire is alive, Apollinaire is dead, Apollinaire is alive again. And the writing is surprisingly uneven, with some moments of pretty serious confusion. That said, the stories are entertaining as hell and the gossip is juicy, so if you're interested in the period you're bound to enjoy yourself.

Bohemian Paris Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse, and the Birth of Modern Art

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