The story of French painters during the nineteenth century is an exciting one, colored by personal rivalries and revolutions in taste. In the face of an indifferent or jeering public, artists often had to make great sacrifices to achieve the sincere expression of their ideals. Firmly established academic painters bitterly opposed all young artists who tried to create new styles, and the inertia of popular taste lent such authority to the Academy that artists could only be original at their own peril.