Nomadisierend, ohne Heimat und Herkunft, verbunden mit der Vorstellung des Ungeordneten, bezeichnet die 'Zigeunerin' zugleich ein poetisches Ideal zahlreicher Autoren des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Mit klar definierbaren Stereotypen, die häufig mythemischen Charakter haben, werden Zigeunerfiguren in der Literatur, aber auch in Oper und Film, inszeniert und in ihrer Alterität festgeschrieben. Das 19. Jahrhundert ist in besonderer Weise von einem ambivalenten Umgang mit dem als exotisch empfundenen Anderen gekennzeichnet. Die Zigeunerin ist die zugleich ein- wie ausgeschlossene Dritte, eine hybride Figur, die immer neue Bedeutungen generiert und besonders in Umbruchsituationen zu finden ist.

Although Max Liebermann (1847–1935) began his career as a realist painter depicting scenes of rural labor, Dutch village life, and the countryside, by the turn of the century, his paintings had evolved into colorful images of bourgeois life and leisure that critics associated with French impressionism. During a time of increasing German nationalism, his paintings and cultural politics sparked numerous aesthetic and political controversies. His eminent career and his reputation intersected with the dramatic and violent events of modern German history from the Empire to the Third Reich. The Nazis’ persecution of modern and Jewish artists led to the obliteration of Liebermann from the narratives of modern art, but this volume contributes to the recent wave of scholarly literature that works to recover his role and his oeuvre from an international perspective.

"Life of Mozart" by Ludwig Nohl gives a unique perspective on the life and career of one of the world's most famous composers. Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition resulted in more than 800 works. He is celebrated in this book not just for his work, but also for his life.

"Arriving at the family manor, the major scarcely regognises his tall and elegant niece as she rushes to greet him. Surprise soon turns to satisfaction as he learns theat she has confessed to being in love with him--and he a fifty-year-old man! ...Before he can enjoy his new found joie de vivfe, he must first make his confession to his son, for whom his niece was originally promised. So begins Goethe's wicked comedy of family obligations, misplaced affections, and the inexorable advancement of time..."Jacket.

Alongside [Vincent] van Gogh, [Paul] Cézanne, and [Paul] Gauguin, Edgar Degas ... is considered one of the major pioneers of modern art. In light of his popular impressionistic paintings, it is easy to lose sight of the conplexity of Degas's oeuvre. All his life, the artist experimented with printing techniques and drawing as well as photography and sculpture. In his late work the delicate, detailed painting of his mature period between the eighteen-seventies and early eighteen-eighties yields to a unique pleasure in technical experimentation and an obsessive creativity, which increasingly liberated the means of depiction from its reproductive function. As if in a dreamlike state that unites the present and past, things seen and remembered, he produced nude studies, ballet scenes, landscapes and portraits. ..."--Book jacket.