Lesson 2: The Impressionist Movement
Formation of the Group
The first group exhibition of the Impressionists was held in 1874 in Paris, in the former studio of Nadar, the photographer. The group of artists who exhibited their work included Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, Morisot, Degas, Sisley, Boudin, and Cezanne. These artists had been rejected by the juries of the Salon and needed somewhere to show their work to the Parisians!
To find out about the first group exhibition, explore the Web site at http://artchive.com/74nadar.htm Here you'll find pictures of the paintings included in the first exhibition, along with comments made by the critics at the time. Some of the comments are very entertaining! Here's an example of one critic's view of Monet's Impression: Sunrise:
"'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! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.'
Louis Leroy, Le Charivari, 25 April 1874
Do you think that means the critic didn't like the painting?! Here's a picture of it:
To find Impression: Sunrise on the site, click Monet from the home page, then click the painting at the far right of the browser window. You can also read about how Monet came to name the painting Impression: Sunrise.
Spend some time checking out the works exhibited at the first show and the critic comments. Did you agree with any of the critics? If not, why not? Which paintings did you like the best?
Following the first exhibition, most of the original artists (Cezanne was a notable exception!), along with some newcomers, participated in another seven exhibitions. But in the end, not much was sold and everybody ended up distrusting everyone else!
To view the entire list of artists who exhibited with the Impressionists, check out this link: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/imp...
For further information on the First Impressionist Exhibition, read pages 68-69 in Impressionist Art - A Crash Course.
