She is famous throughout the world, but how many know her name? You can admire her figure in Washington, Paris, London, New York, Dresden, or Copenhagen, but where is her grave? She was fourteen in the Paris of the 1880s, eking out a living at the Paris Opera as a petit rat. She also worked as a model, posing for painters and sculptors-among them Edgar Degas. Laurens paints a compelling portrait of Marie van Goethem and the world she inhabited; a time when art unsettled the hypocrisy of society. Her passionate inquiry takes us through the underbelly of the Belle Epoque, casting a light on those who have traditionally been overlooked in the study of art, and opening a space for essential questions.
