Early Impressionism. Paris 1860–1879

The Salon, the first independent exhibition, railway stations, studios and leisure on the Seine.

In 1874 a group of artists held an exhibition in the former studio of the photographer Nadar. They decided what to show themselves, bypassing the official Salon jury. This addressed a practical professional problem: finding an audience and buyers.

Paintings from the preceding decade lead up to that exhibition. Manet introduces disputes about acceptable subjects; Monet, new places of work and leisure; Morisot and Degas, different opportunities to observe the city. We finish in the late 1870s, when the participants’ themes and methods were already diverging.

Who decided what could be exhibited

The official Salon brought recognition and commissions. Manet sought to exhibit there even when his paintings caused scandal.

The Spanish Singer

Édouard Manet · 1860

The Spanish Singer brought Manet early Salon recognition. We begin with his success within the exhibition system.

The Old Musician

Édouard Manet · 1862

Manet builds a large painting from recognisable urban figures. The contemporary street becomes material for an ambitious composition.

Luncheon on the Grass

Édouard Manet · 1863

The painting appeared in the Salon des Refusés in 1863. Contemporary clothes beside a nude intensified the debate over propriety.

Olympia

Édouard Manet · 1863

The 1865 Salon accepted Olympia, but viewers received it with hostility. Jury admission did not ensure public approval.

Woman with a Parrot

Gustave Courbet · 1866

Courbet also sought a place in the Salon. His nude offers a different strategy for gaining recognition.

The Artist's Father, Reading "L'Événement"

Paul Cezanne · 1866

The young Cézanne depicts his father with a newspaper. Before his later landscapes and still lifes, he explored dense, heavily worked paint.

A day outside Paris

Railways shortened journeys to the suburbs. Rivers, beaches and racing became part of urban leisure and a new subject for painting.

The Races at Longchamp

Édouard Manet · 1866

At the races Manet chooses approaching horses and abrupt foreshortening. Movement demands a different composition.

The Beach at Sainte-Adresse

Claude Monet · 1867

Monet’s beach brings holiday leisure together with boats and work by the sea.

Jalais Hill, Pontoise

Camille Pissarro · 1867

Pissarro paints the surroundings of Pontoise. Fields and a village show a different side of suburban life from Sunday leisure.

Impression, Sunrise

Claude Monet · 1872

Le Havre was a port on the coast where Monet grew up. This view’s title gave critics the word “Impressionists” after the 1874 exhibition.

Boating

Édouard Manet · 1874

Manet brings both people and water close to the viewer. He supported his Impressionist friends without joining their exhibitions.

Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son

Claude Monet · 1875

Camille and Jean Monet become models during a walk. Outdoor painting links family life with artistic experiment.

The new city

Stations and wide streets changed movement through Paris. Painters chose views that revealed speed, crowds and new architecture.

The Railway

Édouard Manet · 1873

Steam almost conceals the railway in Manet’s painting. A railing separates a private garden from the new urban transport.

Paris Street; Rainy Day

Gustave Caillebotte · 1877

Caillebotte shows the broad streets of rebuilt Paris. Their geometry determines the spacing between pedestrians.

Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare

Claude Monet · 1877

Monet works inside the station. Steam and its glass roof create light as changeable as clouds over a river.

Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette

Pierre-Auguste Renoir · 1876

Renoir takes us to a dance in Montmartre. Urban leisure provides a large composition filled with figures.

Work behind the scenes

Spectators saw performances and beautiful clothes. Degas also studied the training, rehearsals and making that supported this leisure.

The Dancing Class

Edgar Degas · About 1870

Degas’s early class shows dancers in training. Theatre begins here with repeated exercises.

The Dance Class

Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas · 1874

A later Dance Class shows how Degas reworked the space of a rehearsal.

The Millinery Shop

Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas · 1879-86

In the millinery workshop we see women’s labour behind urban dress.

Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (Francisca and Angelina Wartenberg)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir · 1879

Renoir’s acrobats return us to entertainment, though its performers are still children.

Who had access to the city

Home, garden and outings had particular importance for Morisot and Cassatt. Their subjects reflect both access to models and the social rules governing affluent women.

The Artist's Sister at a Window

Berthe Morisot · 1869

Morisot paints her sister at a window. Familiarity with the sitter allows observation without formal posing.

Reading

Berthe Morisot · 1873

A woman reading continues the theme of educated domestic leisure.

Berthe Morisot with a Muff

Édouard Manet · c. 1871–72

Manet’s portrait shows Morisot through a fellow painter’s eyes.

Woman at Her Toilette

Berthe Morisot · 1875–80

Morisot approaches a woman’s everyday routine in this toilette scene. Broken brushwork shapes both fabric and room.

On a Balcony

Mary Cassatt · 1878–79

Born in the United States, Cassatt built her career in Paris. A balcony marks the boundary between home and street.

Little Girl in a Blue Armchair

Mary Cassatt · 1878

Cassatt chooses a child tired of posing, changing the conventions of a decorous family portrait.

Madame Charpentier and Her Children

Pierre-Auguste Renoir · 1878

The Charpentier family reveals another route to Renoir’s recognition: a successful portrait commission and Parisian social connections.

Summer’s Day

Berthe Morisot · About 1879

An outing on the lake closes the tour. Morisot joins an intimate portrait with the changing light of the open air.

After the first exhibitions

A shared exhibition made room for different artists. Monet pursued changing light, Degas studied work and movement, and Morisot painted people around her. They shared a desire to exhibit contemporary painting independently.

By the late 1870s the new painting encompassed stations, streets, theatres and domestic rooms. Each subject involved particular conditions of access, employment and leisure. Impressionism’s history can therefore be read alongside the city’s history.