by In April 1874 a group of Parisian artists who had repeated difficulty in getting their work shown in the prestigious annual Salon decided they needed their own forum to showcase their work. Exhibitions were important ways to connect arts with patrons, and these artists needed to sell their paintings.
After some previous starts and stops (primarily due to funding issues), their first exhibit opened two weeks before the Salon exhibit. While it did attract a few thousand visitors, it was nothing to the 400,000 who attended the Salon that year.
Though the exhibit had what we consider icons of the art world today, back in the day it was not so much. We’re talking Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Pisarro, Degas, Sisley. It’s hard to imagine it not being well-received, but alas, it was not.
Monet exhibited his 1873 painting Impression, Sunrise. An art critic used that title to write a satirical and scathing review of the event, creating a dialogue between two people perusing the exhibit. It grows increasingly mocking, writing of Monet’s painting:
Impression I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it — and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! A preliminary drawing for a wallpaper pattern is more finished than this seascape.
Even though the exhibit was a financial failure, the group adopted the name “Impressionists,” and went on to hold several more exhibitions, and eventually success found them.
In 2024, the Musée d’Orsay created an exhibit for the 150th anniversary, featuring many works from the Impressionists’ exhibit alongside works that made it into the Salon that year. That exhibit came to Washington D.C., there called Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment, and Doug and I made sure to get there to see it for ourselves.
It was really interesting to see the painting that started it all, along with so many others from that time period all grouped together.
The National Gallery of Art Library held a companion exhibit Life in the Impressionists’ Paris. This included photographs and prints from their collection showing “us the world of the artists and artworks on view in Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment. These archival objects provide glimpses of a city and an art market on the cusp of modernity.”
The cover photo to this post is Fishing Boats Leaving the Harbor, Le Havre, 1874, Claude Monet. Unless otherwise indicated, the photos in this post are of paintings displayed at what has come to be known as the “First Impressionist Exhibition.”
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