Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment

The first view was of the backs of a small group of people in front of the painting I traveled to see at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. I struggled to stay patient and wait my turn as the small crowd moved on. It was worth the wait and the expense of a plane ride to Dulles Airport, followed by an adventurous cab ride that delivered me to my downtown hotel. The next morning, I learned that finding a cab or Uber in DC in the rain is not as easy as you might think. The crowd who usually walk or bike to the metro or their offices was also looking for rides. 

That first painting was worth standing in the light rain for around twenty minutes before the doors opened. It was worth the wait to pass through security, and then there was another short wait to drop off our coats in the cloakroom. The painting was Monet’s Impression, Sunrise. Much like the morning I had just experienced, the painting was almost dreary. It portrayed an industrial view of Le Havre, Paris. The waterfront was shrouded in a grungy-looking blue-gray fog that the sun hadn’t yet burned off. Standing out more clearly was the black form of a boat and its sailor. Behind and above was a small circle of vivid orange in the sky, casting ripples of an increasingly pale orange reflection across the water. It would be easy to overlook if it were lost in a gallery of art from that period. The remainder of this historic exhibit added value, but Monet’s painting is the one I had to see, the one I was willing to travel to see.  

Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet

Perhaps most surprisingly, this imaginative painting’s name became the name of an entire new art period. Impression, Sunrise was singled out by a critic emphasizing the word ”impression” to denigrate the art style. The paintings in the Société’s show were described as mere “impressions” rather than the traditional precise drawing, painting, and content that were the focus of an artist’s education at that time.

The National Gallery's exhibit, Paris 1874, illustrated the shift in focus to a group of artists shut out by the long-standing salon sponsored by the Académie des Beaux-Arts. The Académie was the established source for art. It selected and showed the best of realist or academic art. These works were of the highest quality and the most literal. The group of upstart artists, who eventually became known as Impressionists, formed the Société Anonyme des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs. They hosted a competing show that was smaller, with far fewer visitors. But it was the start of something bigger. 

The National Gallery of Art exhibit contained 130 paintings from these two shows held in 1874. Each pair of paintings in the exhibit contained one work from the Académie and one from the Société. The viewers at the National Gallery are invited to guess which painting was from which show. In most cases, it was apparent, but it was hard to tell in a few instances. The title cards for each painting provided common information about the painting and indicated where the painting appeared. The Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington organized this 2024 exhibit for the 150th anniversary of the first Society Exhibit held in 1874. 

Before visiting the Paris 1874 exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, I imagined art as a gentle evolution of styles over centuries. My conception of art’s innovation was that it was an inevitable, incremental change as cultural and societal tastes shifted. At the stately National Gallery, I recognized that many of the changes in art styles through history have shocked an era's culture. Art, like science, is a creative, inventive force. Art’s most successful practitioners are those whose imaginations take them beyond existing works to new ways of envisioning the world. 

Why this painting, I wondered. What about it had captured my interest? What was the connection with this example of Monet’s revolutionary painting style? 

I traveled to see the exhibit in December 2024 primarily because of my long-standing interest in Impressionism. The concept of breaking down the rendering of an object into individual wisps of colors fascinated me even as a novice in high school art classes. Although I was an avid library user, my home held few books. Somehow, my mother perceived my interest in this painting style and bought me a large, coffee-table-style book on Impressionism. I still have it in a treasured place in my favorite home bookcase. 

This exhibit was an extension of my 2023 outing to tour Monet’s home and gardens in France, now maintained by a foundation. It was all there, the famous pond with its green bridge and water lilies. I walked across that bridge, noticing that even the small rowboat was perched on the pond's edge. But the water lily paintings were to come later, many years after Impression, Sunrise. 

The side-by-side concept of the National Gallery’s display resonated directly with my interests in underdogs and creativity. In both my children’s travel sports and my long career as a state legislative staffer, my sympathies have tended to the underdog. It’s my nature to side with those who aren’t selected or are deftly excluded from inner circles. This predilection accounts for many frustrations. It also coincides with my interest in artists struggling for acceptance in the art world. Many now-famous paintings were not celebrated during the artist’s lifetime. I had not thought about art in terms of underdogs versus established artists until last year at this exhibit.

What a unique year and place in art history, Paris 1874.  I am grateful to the participating museums for their artistry in arranging such an instructive opportunity to see these works. Before leaving the museum, I went back to see that first painting one last time. It was beside an excellent painting, L’Eminence Grise by Jean-Léon Gérôme from the Académie’s 1874 salon. In 1874, I might have chosen Gérôme’s work if I had been offered one of the two. Today, I see the fertile imagination that created Impression, Sunrise, and would select its subtle suggestion of the scene at the harbor.