THE IMPRESSIONISTS AT ARGENTEUIL.(Smithsonian Institution National Gallery of Art)(Brief...

National Gallery of Art; Washington DC; until August 20.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum; Hartford, Connecticut; September 9-December 3

In December 1871, Claude Monet moved to the northwest Paris suburb of Argenteuil. A railway line constructed twenty years before had made it possible for middle-class Parisians to escape the city, and in the intervening two decades, it had attracted many residents and several businesses, transforming the cute village into a prosperous growing town.

As Argenteuil was coming into its own as a thriving suburb, the rev