S. Hollis Clayson is a historian of modern art who specializes in nineteenth-century Europe, especially France, and transatlantic exchanges between France and the United States. She is currently Professor of Art History and Bergen Evans Professor in the Humanities at Northwestern University. Her books include Painted Love: Prostitution in French Art of the Impressionist Era, Understanding Paintings: Themes in Art Explored and Explained, and Paris in Despair: Art and Everyday Life Under Siege (1870-71). In 2013, she curated the exhibition ELECTRIC PARIS at the Clark Art Institute.  Her related book studies the visual cultures of the City of Light in the era of Thomas Edison.