the expatriate american, james mcneill whistler, was also invited to join the first exhibition, but herred to continue showing his work in london, although his very simple, freely brushed nocturnes had much in common with the impressionists' atmospheric sketches. it was this lack of finish which led the celebrated english critic, ruskin, to accuse whistler of flinging a pot of paint in the face of the public. the impressionists' interest in open-air painting led them to the landscape on the outskirts of paris and the expanding villages along the river seine. such areas were meeting places of several different worlds. camille pissarro made art out of the least prepossessing parts of his surroundings. even a drab road in louveciennes, where he lived, could provide the raw material for art. pissarro generally peopled the streets of louveciennes with peasant figures, showing it as a country village, but when renoir painted the same stretch of road, he transformed it into a cheerful pleasure ground with fashionably dressed strollers from the city. monet lived for five years at argenteuil on