In her newest publication Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers, award-winning author Jean Strouse captures the dramas, mysteries, intrigues, and tragedies surrounding John Singer Sargent's portraits of the Wertheimer family. Family Romance looks at twelve portraits of one English family painted by the expatriate American artist at the height of his career—and at the intersections of all these lives with the sparkle and strife of the Edwardian age.

Strouse is the winner of the Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy and her essays and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Architectural Digest, and Newsweek.

Reading followed by discussion with the author and UCLA professor Mona Simpson, who organizes this series.