1874 -1886 · Light, modern life and artistic independence

Born around exhibitions organized outside the Official Salon, Impressionism transforms the visual sensation, the outdoors and contemporary scenes into the driving forces of a new painting.

On April 15, 1874, thirty-one artists opened an independent exhibition in the former Parisian studio of photographer Nadar. Monet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot, Pissarro, Cézanne and Sisley present works that refuse the hierarchies and procedures of the Official Salon. The journalist Louis Leroy mocks Impression, rising sun by Monet and uses the word "impressionist". Initially ironic, the term was claimed by the group from 1877. Eight group exhibitions followed one another until 1886, with participants and variable aesthetic choices. Impressionism therefore does not constitute a unique recipe. Monet and Sisley study the transformations of the light in the landscape; Renoir observes leisure and sociability; Degas works on movement, repetitions and framing inspired by photography; Morisot and Cassatt give a new place to the feminine and domestic experience; Pissarro follows the countryside as well as the city. The visible touch, the juxtaposition of tones, the colored shadows and the open-air painting help preserve the primary sensation, even when the canvas is taken up in the studio. The four chosen works summarize several tensions. Impression, rising sun favors the atmosphere. The Bal du moulin de la Galette captures a crowd crossed by light. The dance class transforms learning to choreograph the gaze. Olympia by Manet, prior to the group but decisive for its generation, directly confronts the viewer with the modernity of the model and the painting. The "Impressionist" selection notably compares Impression, Soleil Levant and Bal du Moulin de la Galette. His reading favors space.

Impressionism does not only paint quickly: it reconstructs the world from a sensation, a moment and a look that has become fully modern.