There are moments when a man’s imagination, so easily subdued to what it lives in, suddenly rises above its daily level and surveys the long windings of destiny.
—EDITH WHARTON, The Age of Innocence
The Society attracted all sorts of artists to the grand drawing room on Fifth Avenue. It wasn’t the want for fame that drew them there—though some certainly became known—or even the anticipation of improvement. Instead, it was the realization that for some, true art, great art, is not won in solitude. It must first be lived.
—JAMES LAUGHLIN, The Society