David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

in all of Europe.
Every year each of the painters of
France submitted two or three of his
finest canvases to a jury of experts. The
deadline was the first of April. Artists
from around the world pushed handcarts
loaded with canvases through Paris’s
cobblestoned streets, bringing their work
to the Palais de l’Industrie, an exhibition
hall built for the Paris World Fair
between the Champs-Élysées and the
Seine. Throughout the next few weeks,
the jury would vote on each painting in
turn. Those deemed unacceptable would
be stamped with the red letter “R” for
rejected. Those accepted would be hung
on the walls of the Palais, and over the
course of six weeks beginning in early