Everyone knows Paris is hosting the Olympics this summer but there’s another event Paris is celebrating this year. It’s the 150th anniversary of Impressionism. April 15, 1874 was the first exhibit of Impressionist art. It completely changed the course of art as it was seen at the time.
Prior to the Impressionists, the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris was the arbiter of what could be considered fine art. Artists presented their work to the academy whose jurors decided whether the work merited inclusion in the salon, or exhibit. If an artist couldn’t show their work at the salon, they were unlikely to ever sell it.
At that time, fine art was considered to be religious scenes, or scenes from mythology. Landscapes were only backdrops for depictions of famous battles. Famous people were also acceptable. The impressionists were the rebels of the art world. They wanted to paint modern scenes of real life and real people, as photographers were beginning to do. Their painting style, full of slashes and dashes of color was meant to convey the fast pace of their world, and the resulting image was meant to be a brief impression, an image of the moment. It was revolutionary and the jurists of the Academy hated it.
After many rejections, the group of rebels, including Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne, and 27 others hosted their own exhibition. It lasted three weeks and again, the critics denounced the works of the artists. But the public loved it. They connected with the images of their own world.
By 1900, when An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder is set, the Académie des Beaux Arts was gone, the Impressionists were well established, and the more stylized work of the Post-Impressionists were on the rise. But the artists in my book would still be starving artists if not for the resistance and hard work of the Impressionists—the bad boys (and girls) of the art world—definitely something worth celebrating.
Although the largest collection of Impressionist art is housed at the Musée d’Orsay, you don’t have to travel to Paris to see some wonderful examples. The Art Institute of Chicago and the Boston Museum of Fine Art have two of the best collections in the country. In this post I touch on just the bare bones of what Impressionism is all about, but if you’d like to learn more about it, check with your local art museum this summer. They may have an exhibit in honor of the anniversary. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy some favorites I’ve included in this post.
What a great teaser for the newest and upcoming Countess of Harleigh Mysteries. I really can’t wait.