Publisher's Synopsis
At the great Ateliers of Messieurs Bouguereau and Lefebvre the first day of the week is the busiest - and so, this being Monday, the studios were crowded. The heat was suffocating. The walls, smeared with the refuse of a hundred palettes, fairly sizzled as they gave off a sickly odor of paint and turpentine. Only two poses had been completed, but the tired models stood or sat, glistening with perspiration. The men drew and painted, many of them stripped to the waist. The air was heavy with tobacco smoke and the respiration of some two hundred students of half as many nationalities.
