Anglophone art historians have long studied the arts of France, but the intensity of the American gaze directed at early modern and modern French art practices intensified during the glory days of the Social History of Art of the 1970s and 1980s. The attraction was driven by an interest in linking the history of art and history tout court. France offered the longevity of the institutional framework of art that coincided with volatile socio-political conditions. This dialogue encourages audience members to question that singular intensity and its effects.