Exhibition

Inventing Impressionism

4 Mar 2015 – 30 May 2015

Regular hours

Wednesday
11:00 – 18:00
Thursday
11:00 – 18:00
Friday
11:00 – 21:00
Saturday
11:00 – 18:00
Sunday
11:00 – 18:00
Monday
11:00 – 18:00
Tuesday
11:00 – 18:00

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Charting how one man saved Impressionism from critical disaster, and in the process was able to establish the modern art market.

About

Impressionism is one of painting's best loved movements, but in its time it was highly controversial. If it weren't for the efforts of the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel – who tirelessly championed the likes of Monet, Pissarro, Degas and Renoir –many of its greatest works would have never gained precedence. 

This exhibition at the National Gallery focuses specifically on Durand-Ruel, fierce advocate and loyal friend of the Impressionists. He became the group’s most courageous backer during the 1870s when their work was still being ridiculed or ignored. 'Without him', said Monet, 'we wouldn’t have survived'.

But more than moral or financial support, it was Durand-Ruel's revolutionary business strategies that single-handedly reversed the fate of the Impressionists. As well as stock building, exclusivity and one-man shows of 'his' artists, he transformed his Paris-based business into a global firm by opening branch galleries in London and New York. 

The exhibition includes around 70 of the impressionists' greatest masterpieces, all of which were dealt by Durand-Ruel.

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Exhibiting artistsToggle

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Claude Monet

Claude Monet

Camille Pissarro

Edgar Degas

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