While the Austro-Hungarian Empire was slowly unraveling, Laban left his homeland in 1899 to study art, first in Munich, then in Paris, and later back in Munich again. This was the period when the great European art academies were still functioning, along with iconoclastic art movements that were breaking new ground.
Trilby, by George du Maurier, is my summer reading recommendation. Published in 1897, the novel’s setting reflects the author’s own bohemian years as an art student in Paris. The main character Trilby is an artist’s model beloved by three aspiring painters. While much of the plot deals with how Trilby falls under the spell of the hypnotist Svengali, the story still manages to evoke the atmosphere of Paris in the late nineteenth century and the youthful enthusiasms of aspiring artists.