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Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism
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About This Book
The Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic's gripping account of the "Terrible Year" in Paris and its enormous impact on the rise of Impressionism. From the summer of 1870 to the spring of 1871, Paris and its people were forced into surrender by Germans and imperiled as rebel republicans established a breakaway Commune, ultimately crushed by the French army after the burning of central Paris. As Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic Sebastian Smee shows, it was against the backdrop of these tumultuous times that the Impressionist movement was born—a reaction to violence, civil war, and political intrigue. Smee tells the story of Paris's "Terrible Year" through the eyes of the Impressionists, with a focus on the relationship between Edouard Manet, the father of the movement, and Berthe Morisot, the group's preeminent woman. With narrative sweep and vivid detail, Paris in Ruins captures the shifting passions and politics of the art world, revealing how the pressures of the Siege and the chaos of the Commune had a monumental effect on the development of modern art.
Reviews
"With exquisite sensitivity."
"Deeply researched and suavely written ..."
"Smee blends political and military history and biography into a seamless narrative that will fundamentally change the way that we think about the emergence of impressionism."
"Smee gives a rather standard account of the political and social upheaval that led to the Commune and its suppression, his chronicle gains sinew as he recounts the deprivations and terrors of various artists and their families during the Prussian bombardment and the Communards' revolt."
"Smee is especially good at depicting the hardships of Paris under Prussian siege."
"Often feels like it desperately wants to be a Morisot biography, or perhaps that was just increasingly my desire to learn more about this 'poet of the ephemeral.' All art is subjective, but I would have liked the military and political particulars to be de-emphasized, less naturalistic and more impressionistic — like these memorable artists."
"Vibrant and incisive."
"Deft, vibrant cultural history."
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