Inventing Impressionism at the Orsay

One evening in April 1874, as I strolled the Boulevard des Capucines, admiring the horse-drawn carriages rumbling past me, something unexpected happened. Rose, in a pretty full-skirted dress and demure bonnet, who introduced herself as an artists’ model, invited me to follow her into number 35 where a group of artists had just opened a new exhibition. And so I found myself in the very room where Monet had set his easel up at the window and painted the bustling street scene for the work he entitled Boulevard des Capucines. 

Rose took me round the various rooms, where Degas, Pissarro and their fellow artists waited to tell me a little about their works. Then we went out to the station and took a train to the countryside just west of Paris where the flowery meadows and river made me feel I had slipped into an Impressionist painting. We wandered past bathers in striped full-body costumes and a boathouse where you could hire canoes. Rose stumbled momentarily at the water’s edge – imagine my surprise on looking up to find Monet standing at his easel and hear him remark that he was keen to capture on his canvas the ripples she had made in the water. Our tour ended in a hotel room in Le Havre, watching Monet put the finishing touches to his Impression, Sunrise painting and asking us whether we found it “a little too bright.”

The VR experience, An Evening with the Impressionists, at the Musée d’Orsay, makes a novel way to rediscover the origins of the 19th century movement which was to conquer the art world. It supplements their main, more conventional exhibition, Inventing Impressionism, Paris 1874. Don a free-roaming headset, take in one or two instructions from the staff, then set off for a 45-minute tour through the exhibition which began it all and the places where the artists loved to paint.

I’m a technophobe and prone to skepticism, but, reader, I loved every minute. I would just caution you to make sure you book advance tickets for the experience as well as for entry to the museum. It’s proving very popular and I fear you will not be able to make a spur-of-the-moment decision to go.

Exactly 150 years after that first exhibition, it’s good to recall some context. In 1874, Paris was gripped by a new excitement. After defeat in the Franco-Prussian war and the siege of 1870, the era which would be known as the Belle Époque was just beginning. Here in Boulevard des Capucines, where the new Opéra Garnier was being built, a group of artists who were disillusioned with the stuffiness of the art establishment had clubbed together to hire rooms, formerly the studio of the photographer Nadar. They wanted to stage an exhibition to show – and hopefully sell – their work.

The 30 or so artists called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors and Printmakers and among their number were some of the future impressionist movement’s best-known artists: Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and Paul Cézanne. The exhibition was not a huge success, the society dissolved a year later, but this was nevertheless later regarded as the moment when impressionism was born. 

The Orsay exhibition is telling this story partly by featuring many of the works which were in the 1874 exhibition, so it’s a chance to see some old favorites, from Renoir’s La Danseuse and La Parisienne to Monet’s Poppies, as well as La Classe de Danse by Degas and Berthe Morisot’s The Cradle. But there is much more. Anne Robbins, the exhibition’s co-curator, thinks many people will be surprised to find that this first show “wasn’t really Impressionist at all.” It featured works in a variety of media – painting, drawing, sculptures and engravings – by artists of many different ages, styles and backgrounds. Examples include Ludovic Napoléon Lepic’s delightful drawings of his dogs, Jupiter and César, and Auguste Ottin’s sculpture of a Young Woman Holding a Vase. These and many more are there to see, adding useful background to the era when Impressionism began.    

The 1874 exhibition could hardly be deemed a great success. A respectable 3,500 people attended, but only four works were sold. Some critics were horrified, dismissing the works as mere “daubs” or “indecipherable palette scrapings,” although others took a more nuanced stand. At least one advised “Ye who enter here” to “abandon all former prejudice” and give the artists a chance, while others praised the artists for their courage in setting up an independent exhibition. It closed in December that year and the Société des Anonymes was disbanded. However, it remains historically important, not least because it was a start and also because it was in writing his review that a critic first used the term “Impressionism.”  

Another main strand of the Orsay exhibition is the Salon, the establishment exhibition which opened in May 1874, closely linked to the Musée des Beaux Arts. For 200 years this event had been the unmissable showcase for new artists and acceptance of a painting to hang there was a huge career boost. A good number of works shown in the Salon of 1874 feature in the current exhibition, providing a chance to make comparisons. Some were certainly “old school”, on mythical, historical and religious themes such as Edouard Dantan’s Monk Sculpting a Figure of Christ. Others were “modern” in their own way, for example or Auguste Lançon’s gruesomely realistic depiction of the recent French defeat on the battlefield at Bazeilles.  

And yet there was also a crossover between the two exhibitions. Here, for example, you can see Charles-François Daubigny’s Fields in the Month of June and realize that it has much in common with Monet’s Poppies. Daubigny had resigned from the Salon jury in 1870 in protest at Monet’s exclusion from the exhibition that year, a fact which strengthens the connection between the two artists. Manet’s The Railway is here too, a painting whose outdoor setting and fresh style gives it much in common with Impressionist works. Interestingly, Manet had been invited to exhibit it at the Rue des Capucines event, but had refused, saying he thought the Salon was the road to success and that he would stick with that. There were even artists who hedged their bets and had works hanging in both exhibitions.   

The last section continues the story of Impressionism, focusing particularly on the 3rd Impressionist Exhibition, held in 1877 and deemed with hindsight to be the “most Impressionist” of the eight shows they organized. It was the only one which used the term “Impressionist” in its title, and the 18 artists whose work was shown now displayed more of the traits we have come to associate with the movement: outdoor settings, an emphasis on modern life rather than religion or history, a desire to “capture a moment” with quick brushstrokes and to focus on light and color. Paintings from the 1877 exhibition shown here include blockbuster favorites like Monet’s La Gare Saint-Lazare and Renoir’s Bal du Moulin de la Galette.   

And, most apposite of all, here to round off the exhibition is Monet’s Impression, Sunrise. It is out of sequence, because it was first shown in the 1874 exhibition, but it was little noticed or remarked upon at the time. Its importance was fully understood only later. As it was being catalogued for inclusion in the show, Monet was asked to give it a name. He explained later that “As it could not really count as a view of Le Havre, I replied ‘put down “Impression.” It was a spur-of-the-moment idea, but it may well have prompted a reviewer to coin the term “Impressionists” which was eventually used to describe this new artistic movement which would go on to trump all the others in later years. 

Inventing Impressionism is to be highly recommended. It’s a chance to revisit favorite paintings by all seven of the artists who later went on to achieve fame as Impressionist artists: Monet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot, Pissarro, Sisley and Cézanne. But it’s also an opportunity to see the work of more than 20 other artists from the 1874 exhibition, plus those shown at the rival Salon, adding much detail to the context of early Impressionism. The movement which was to become so successful had a rather tentative beginning, but this current exhibition, along with the virtual experience, is a testament to the power of experiment. As one encouraging critic wrote at the time: “Good luck. Innovations always lead to something.” Do try and see the exhibition and if it’s innovation you seek, add a ticket for the virtual experience to your basket when booking. 

DETAILS

Paris 1874 Inventing Impressionism
Musée d’Orsay until July 14th
Full-price ticket: 16 €
The exhibition will move to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. from 8th September 2024 to 19th January 2025.

Tonight with the Impressionists
Virtual Reality Experience
Musée d’Orsay until August 11th
16 € (in addition to the entry cost for the museum)
The experience is not recommended for people prone to epileptic seizures, migraines, or with balance or vision problems.