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Paris has always harbored a special allure for American expatriate writers, artists and composers. But throughout the late 19th century, a particularly high concentration of great American painters — including Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler and Mary Cassatt — passed through the City of Light. From Oct. 24-Jan. 18, their labors will be on display in "Americans in Paris, 1860-1900" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The 100 oil paintings by 37 mostly Impressionist painters have already wowed crowds and critics in both London and Boston. The exhibit ranges from portraits to cityscapes to glimpses into the studio life. Cassatt's severe and pensive mother makes a showing in drab black dress, a prim contrast to Thomas Hovenden's slumped self-portrait (1875), pictured.

But the star of the show is John Singer Sargent's notorious Madame X (1884), herself an American transplant who moved to Paris as a child, and who, like her expat painter, would always be an outsider in her adopted city. metmuseum.org

• Rachel Aydt
• An exhibit at New York's Met brings together 100 oil paintings by Americans in 19th century Paris