Chapter Fourteen: Au Revoir, Paris! Summary and Analysis

During the summer of 1886, seventy-seven-year-old Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., was visiting Paris with his daughter Amelia. Many of the companions who he enjoyed many years before in Paris were dead and gone. The only familiar faces he saw were of those in paintings at the Louvre. One person Dr. Holmes wanted to visit was Louis Pasteur. They met just for a brief moment which gave Holmes the chance to shake hands with the famous chemist. Holmes was too tired in the evening to attend the theater. He enjoyed seeing the sights of Paris, especially the bridges that crossed the Seine.

As the century neared its end, there was no let up in the wave of American artists who traveled to Paris. Some would go to any lengths to get there. Maurice Prendergast, son...