Monet and the Birth of Impressionism - Part 2

Why It Matters

It demonstrates how the 1874 Impressionist show pioneered modern exhibition design and market positioning, reshaping the art world’s power structures and influencing today’s gallery conventions.

Key Takeaways

• Impressionist exhibition opened April 15, two weeks before Salon
• Turnstile entry and gas lighting created modern, visitor-friendly atmosphere
• Only seven of 31 artists displayed true Impressionist style
• Exhibition featured diverse media: paintings, sculpture, enamel, terracotta, prints
• Notable works included Degas’s “At the Races” and Renoir’s theater box

Summary

The second episode of “Stories of Art” revisits the inaugural Impressionist show of 1874, detailing its opening on 15 April—just two weeks before the official Salon—on the Boulevard de Clichy in the former studio of photographer Nadar.

Host Alistair Souk and James Fox describe how the organizers used a turnstile entrance and gas‑lit rooms draped in reddish‑brown wool, creating a modern, visitor‑friendly environment unlike the cramped Salon. Thirty‑one artists participated, but only seven produced what we now recognize as Impressionist style, resulting in an eclectic mix of paintings, sculpture, enamel, terracotta and prints.

Among the highlights, Degas’s “At the Races in the Countryside” shocked viewers with a wet‑nurse breastfeeding a child under a parasol, while Renoir’s “Theatre Box” captured a fashionable couple in a tightly cropped, gaze‑laden composition—both exemplifying the show’s blend of technical brilliance and social daring.

The exhibition’s strategic timing, innovative display tactics, and diverse roster signaled a deliberate challenge to the Academy’s dominance, laying groundwork for contemporary curatorial practices and cementing the Impressionists’ role as agents of cultural disruption.

Original Description

When Monet’s Impression, Sunrise was displayed at the First Impressionist Exhibition in of 1874 it inspired one critic to scornfully describe the artists on show as ‘Impressionists’. And so the name of one of the most successful movements in the history of art was born.

But was the success of the First Impressionist Exhibition more fact than fiction?

Was it really a groundbreaking moment in art history or just a chance for some impoverished young artists to make a bit of cash?

Join James and Alastair to find out.

Featured Artworks

Edgar Degas, At the Races in the Countryside, 1869

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, La Loge (The Theatre Box), 1874

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1972