Skilfully assimilating secondary sources throughout Paris in Ruins, Smee at the conclusion of Part One, “Salon of 1869,” writes that Auguste Renoir’s and Claude Monet’s 1869 paintings of La Grenouillère, a popular rowing and bathing resort on the Island of Croissy at Bougival, in effect “invented Impressionism.” Painted in plein air with” short, staccato strokes, […]