Mary Zacaroli talks to Ross King about two painters who stood on opposing sides during a major turning point in art history

Which would you rather have fame, riches and glory in your own lifetime or immortality afterwards? Edouard Manet, often called the father of Impressionism, struggled for years against the prejudices of 1860s Parisians, who derided and lampooned his modernist style of painting. By contrast, Ernest Meissonier was possibly the most famous and lauded painter in Europe. His canvases, which sometimes took years to research and paint, sold for astronomical sums. Yet in comparison to Manet, who inspired a new generation of artists Meissonier has practically been forgotten and is often reviled.

The Canadian writer Ross King's book, The Judgement of Paris, takes the parallel careers of Manet and Meissonier and uses them as a lens though which to view the changing art and politics of the time, starting in 1863 and ending with the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. In short bursts of chapters, he skilfully weaves their lives against the backdrop of sobering, sometimes terrifying, events such as the Franco-Prussian war, the Siege of Paris and the ill-fated Paris Commune. If you know little of the Second Republic, ruled by the dictator Napoleon III, then you will learn a great deal from his engrossing narrative. However, the book is also an absorbing art history. He draws wonderful word pictures to explain how and why the two artists painted in such differing styles, looking at the genesis of such masterpieces as Manet's Olympia and Meissonier's Friedland.

He has found a niche writing popular art history books that highlight a particular time and place in European cultural history. His previous books, Brunelleschi's Dome and Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, were both set in Italy in the 15th and 16th century, when we met at his home in Woodstock, I was interested to know. Why had he moved on to Paris in the 19th century?

"I realised that there was a very good non-fiction book in the idea of Impressionism and the beginnings of Impressionism in the 1860s," he said. So how soon did he fix on Meissonier and Manet as his lens? "Very quickly, because in the 1860s they were described as being at the two opposite poles of art." For example, Meissonier's paintings were masterpieces of realism, in contrast to Manet's blunt brushstrokes.

Meissonier is portrayed fairly sympathetically and I asked the author if he was trying to reappraise the man and his reputation.

"I am," he said. "If we're trying to understand 19th-century French art, we have to understand the person who was the most celebrated painter in Europe at that time." There was virtual unanimity among artists at that time over Meissonier's importance. "What I wanted to do was not necessarily put him back on his pedestal, but give him his proper due and give us a slightly fuller understanding of the art world at that time."

Ross also wants to put him within a larger context reappraise where Impressionism came from. "I wanted to explore the origin of it and look at why something that was so shocking in the 1860s could suddenly become, within maybe 50 years of its appearance, one of the most popular and expensive movements in our history."

The book is crammed with fascinating information. How did Ross manage to amass such amazing knowledge of European cultural history, particularly given that his doctorate is in English literature? "It's the lack of having a proper job," he said. "I spent 14 years in university. It meant that for many years I had a charmed life of being on a very low salary, but having time to read and think and going to art galleries and museums, exposing myself to European culture."

Now 43, he came to England in the early 1990s and, after a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in London, decided to settle in Oxfordshire and write full-time. He loves Woodstock, particularly Blenheim Park, where he walks most days.

I asked what attracted him so much to the past. It partly came from growing up on the Canadian prairies, where anything older than 80 years was considered ancient, he said. "What always fascinated me was old buildings, old books, people in previous centuries, how they lived." His mother's interest in social history also played a part. "We've always had books on those subjects around, so I was almost trained to think like that. We think in a certain way now, but what was it like in the 17th century or 18th century?"

The Judgement of Paris took Ross three years to research and write and he got to know his two painters well. Who would he rather have been Meissonier or Manet? "I think I can say without any qualms Meissonier," he replied. "Wealth and fame does you no good when you're dead and so it's a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned."

The Judgement of Paris is published by Chatto and Windus at £17.99.