One of the only surviving photographs we have of Lillie Bliss—fashionable in a fur-collared coat and a satin hat with a flourish of feathers—is by all accounts misleading. This elegant ensemble was likely one of only two owned by Miss Bliss, who despite her great wealth was a modest, intensely private spinster. Lively, wide-open eyes and a Mona Lisa smile hint at what friends described as her “radiant spirit.” A co-founder of the Museum of Modern Art, Miss Bliss was also a stealth rebel. READ ON

When Alain Jacquet, then 25, and James Rosenquist, 21, met in Paris in 1964, the Pop-art scene was taking off in America. Rosenquist, who hailed from Grand Forks, North Dakota, and was at the heart of the movement in New York, had come to the French capital for an exhibition at Ileana Sonnabend’s gallery. Jacquet lived a few blocks away. Neither artist was famous yet. Jacquet was just starting with silkscreens; Rosenquist was putting up commercial billboards. READ ON