Rory O’Neill Schmitt has penned three books with Arcadia Publishing: Navajo and Hopi Art in Arizona, New Orleans Voodoo: A Cultural History, and Edgar Degas in New Orleans (with Rosary O’Neill). A filmmaker and a photographer, she studied art therapy at the School of Visual Arts in New York and worked as a board-certified art therapist in southern California. She currently manages faculty development at the University of Southern California.

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Edgar Degas in New Orleans

The grit and grandeur of New Orleans helped give rise to an icon of French Impressionism.

Edgar Degas's mother was from New Orleans and from the time he buried her, he pined for Louisiana. In 1872, when he arrived, he found New Orleans wracked with devastation. He struggled with the conflict of helping his family' bankrupt cotton business, while pursuing his passion to paint. Amidst this turmoil, blossomed a tragic friendship with his blind sister-in-law, his beautiful muse. Edgar nearly went mad when he discovered his brother had gone through all the family money, and was having an affair with his wife's best friend. This book rips open the divide between Edgar and his brother that kept them from speaking for ten years, and led Edgar to start a new direction in his work: Impressionism.