Sebastian Smee: Paris in Ruins

Art history, politics and romance converge in Pulitzer Prize winner Sebastian Smee’s latest book, Paris in Ruins.

The Washington Post art critic brings to life the turbulent beginnings of the Impressionist art movement and the political and personal lives of the artists who defined it. 

Marked by violence, war and the burning of central Paris, the 1870–71 winter siege was a formative backdrop for artists trapped within the city, to which they responded with artistic liberation. An indelible portrait of the city, Paris in Ruins captures the chaos of that year, and reveals how it had an incalculable effect on the development of modern art.

At the center of the movement were Édouard Manet, hailed the father of Impressionism, and Berthe Morisot, the group’s only female member in its early years. Entangled in the convulsive politics of the time and embroiled in an affair, these two luminaries were inextricably linked through a creative and complicated bond. 

Join Sebastian in conversation with long-time friend Annabel Crabb and uncover love, war and the birth of Impressionism.