Theme · Beginnings

Organizing the Show

In April 1874 thirty-one artists bypassed the Salon and showed their work themselves.

On 17 January 1874 the organizers announced an open exhibition with no jury and no prizes. The members avoided a group name that would suggest a school.

• About 3,500 people came, against roughly half a million at the 1874 Salon; the artists' company soon closed.
• Conservative critics faulted the unfinished look, while friendly ones welcomed scenes of modern Paris.
• Seven more group shows followed, the last in 1886.

See

• Impression, Sunrise
• Boulevard des Capucines
• The Dancer
• A Modern Olympia

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain