The Clark Art Institute hosts a special appearance by Pulitzer Prize-winner Sebastian Smee, art critic for The Washington Post, as he introduces his new book Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism. From the summer of 1870 to the spring of 1871 Paris and its people were besieged, enduring bloody street battles, the burning of central Paris, and widespread starvation. It was against the backdrop of these tumultuous times that the Impressionist art movement was born―in response to violence, civil war, and political intrigue. Smee tells the story of those dramatic days through the eyes of the leading figures of Impressionism.