What’s He Smoking in that Pipe?

Auguste Renoir. Claude Monet. 1872. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

As the old mountain song about a bear goes, “He ain’t ever been caught, ain’t ever been treed. Some folks say he looks a lot like me.” But we were so much younger then. My goal now is growing old with a Monet graybeard and water lilies in the garden.