In 1869, poverty-stricken artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Work 1) and Claude Monet (Work 2) painted side by side under the same title, "The Frog Pond." It was the name of a floating restaurant near Paris. The nickname came from the "frogs"—bold girls who flouted society's morals and swapped lovers like gloves, hopping from partner to partner. The cafe owner fed the artists for free, taking away their "failed" sketches to cover the stains on the walls. Today those stains are worth millions.

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