Paris in Ruins

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Sebastian Smee is renowned for his vibrant portrayal of art history. Unlike some authors, who deliver the past with the enthusiasm of a bored Year 8 teacher, Smee brings events to life vividly, with remarkable energy and insight.

His latest book, Paris in Ruins, tells the story of the Impressionist movement as it wriggled into existence during the incredible political volatility, and then urban gentrification, of 19th-century Paris.

Smee skilfully uncovers the era’s complexities through the intricacies of its human relationships. Focusing on figures such as Édouard Manet and, refreshingly, the often-overlooked Berthe Morisot, as their lives unfold in the lead-up to the devastating Siege of Paris in 1870 and the subsequent Republican rebellion.

I found this book both devastating and entertaining to read. Occasionally, it is reminiscent of an Alexandre Dumas novel, with a cast of people who find themselves in awkward and ridiculous situations – crashing double-decker hot-air balloons into villages or getting into duels, for example. Matters of the heart are also navigated, in situations fraught with social rules. The book illuminates the interactions and rivalries between Morisot, Édouard Manet, his brother Eugène, and the moody Edgar Degas, using sections of commentary from diaries and letters that left me expelling air they were so barbed. Morisot was the origin of many of these moments, relaying events from Paris in letters to her sister.

I felt a deep empathy for the women of this period, particularly those in the lower classes, who were largely trapped in Paris before the ‘Terrible Year’ set in. Reflecting on how I would have fared if I were in their place was unsettling and thought-provoking. There are also moments within this work that seem to mirror some of the events we have seen more recently in our own time, and this raucous, layered and engrossing read left me reminded of the inseparable bond between politics and art.