Washington, DC—On April 15, 1874, an exhibition by the “Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers, etc.” opened at the Parisian studio of the photographer Nadar on the Boulevard des Capucines. It was a defiant response to the official, government-sponsored annual exhibition known as the Paris Salon. The first exhibition of these Société anonyme artists included works by Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, and Paul Cézanne, later known as impressionists. This now-legendary event is often considered the birth of modernist painting and remains a key moment in the history of Western art.

Honoring the 150th anniversary of the first impressionist exhibition, Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment brings together some 125 paintings, works on paper, prints, sculptures, and photographs to explore the various ways that artists responded to a city recovering from the violence of war and enormous political and social upheaval.

What exactly happened in Paris in the spring of 1874, and what meaning can we attach to the emergence of this artistic movement? Works shown at the first impressionist exhibition will be put into perspective alongside paintings and sculptures displayed at the official 1874 Salon. This unprecedented juxtaposition will help us understand the visual shock that visitors experienced when first encountering the works of the impressionists.

The exhibition will also explore the circumstances that led more than 30 artists to defy the official system of the Salon, with its judges, prizes, and government approval, by showing their art independently. At the time, France was struggling to recover from its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, the siege of Paris and the violence of civil war. Following these crises, artists were rethinking their art, discovering their voices, and exploring new directions.

Eager for autonomy and challenging an academic system that often rejected them, Monet, Degas, Morisot, Pissarro, and their colleagues came together as a société anonyme coopérative, an “anonymous cooperative society.” They exhibited their work in the very heart of Paris, in a photographer’s studio. Scenes of modern life and plein-air landscapes were displayed alongside more conventional paintings, engravings, and sculptures. It represented a common desire to pursue art unconstrained by the established order.

That order will be evoked with a selection of paintings and sculptures from the official Salon, held in the massive Palais de l’Industrie. This annual event, the highlight of the season, featured meticulously crafted mythological, religious, and historical paintings that received government and academic approval. Comparisons between the first impressionist exhibition and the Salon will give us a fresh look at artistic divisions of the day.

Above all, Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment will invite visitors to consider what constituted an impressionist work. What made it so different and specific? These questions led Louis Leroy, one of the first exhibition’s critics, to coin the term “impressionist”—originally meant sarcastically—that came to describe an artistic movement that would reshape our understanding of modern art. A century and a half after its emergence, it is time to take stock of impressionism and reexamine its radicalism.

Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment will include works exhibited at Nadar’s studio as well as paintings and sculptures by established artists such as Jean-Léon Gérôme and Antonin Mercié, who were celebrated at the Salon that year. Modern Paris, with its newly built streets and boulevards, entertainment venues, and performances will also be evoked through works by Renoir, Degas, Monet, Eva Gonzalès, and Édouard Manet, shown either at the first impressionist exhibition or submitted to the Salon. Also included will be works by lesser-known impressionist and Salon artists, some of them recently rediscovered and shown for the first time in this context. Finally, the exhibition will feature Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant)—a seminal painting in the history of impressionism.

“This exhibition will closely reconstitute the very first impressionist exhibition,” noted Christophe Leribault, President of Orsay and Orangerie Museums, Paris. “It will invite visitors to immerse themselves in this decisive moment, a major rupture in the history of art, and help us understand its emergence and grasp its radicality.”

“Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment offers a unique opportunity to explore the origins of one of the most popular and well-known movements in Western art,” said Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art. “We are pleased to partner with the Musée d’Orsay to share this fascinating story with our American audience.”

Exhibition Organization and Support

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Major support for the exhibition has been provided by The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation, Lugano, Bank of America, and the Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation.

The exhibition in Washington is also generously supported by the Hata Foundation, the Buffy and William Cafritz Family Fund, the Annenberg Fund for the International Exchange of Art, the Edwin L. Cox Exhibition Fund, and the Director’s Circle of the National Gallery of Art.

With the special participation of the Musée Marmottan Monet and the Académie des Beaux-Arts, Paris.

The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Exhibition Tour

Musée d’Orsay, Paris, March 25–July 14, 2024
National Gallery of Art, Washington, September 8, 2024–January 19, 2025

Exhibition Ticketing

While this exhibition is not ticketed, you may need to join a line or virtual queue on weekends and busier days. Independently led groups are not permitted.

Exhibition Curators

The exhibition is curated in Paris by Sylvie Patry, senior curator/artistic director, Mennour, Paris; Anne Robbins, curator of paintings, Musée d’Orsay, Paris; and at the National Gallery of Art by Mary Morton, curator and head of the department of French paintings, and by Kimberly A. Jones, curator of 19th-century French paintings.

In the Library: Life in the Impressionists’ Paris

Complementing the exhibition Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment, the National Gallery of Art Library presents approximately 40 photographic prints, postcards, and photo books that capture varied visions of Paris in the last decades of the 19th century. These objects provide a glimpse of a city on the cusp of modernity following the destruction of the Franco-Prussian War and the civil unrest of the Commune in 1870 and 1871. The albums, dealers’ photographs, and artists’ portraits highlight photography’s influence on the emergence of a new art style and as a medium that democratized knowledge about contemporary art in the capital city. Some works show the growth of Parisian suburbs and the emergence of la Parisienne, the fashionably dressed woman who modernized the traditional subject of female beauty.

Curated by Elisabeth Narkin, image specialist for architecture, and Ellen Prokop, image specialist for French art to 1900, this installation is on view from September 4, 2024, through January 17, 2025, in the East Building Library Atrium from 11:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Exhibition Publication and Gallery Shops

Copublished by the National Gallery of Art and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and distributed by Yale University Press, Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment draws on new scholarship to challenge established narratives surrounding the origins of impressionism. This 288-page illustrated volume contextualizes the movement in relation to not only the devastation caused by the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune but also the subsequent process of reconstructing Paris. It reexamines the first exhibition of the Société Anonyme and positions it within the larger artistic landscape, particularly in works shown at the government-sponsored Salon in 1874.  

This book was edited by Sylvie Patry, senior curator/artistic director, Mennour, Paris; Anne Robbins, curator of paintings, Musée d’Orsay, Paris; and by Mary Morton, curator and head of the department of French paintings, and Kimberly A. Jones, curator of 19th-century French paintings, both at the National Gallery of Art. It explores how artists both responded to shifting social and political currents during this singular moment and rebelled against norms in their new approach to art.

The National Gallery Shops celebrate the exhibition with an assortment of custom, special-edition merchandise, including home goods, accessories, stationery, children’s gifts, and more.

The exhibition publication and other related merchandise are available for purchase in a special shop near the exit of Paris 1874. Items are also for sale in the newly renovated West Building Shop, in the East Building Shop, and online shop.nga.gov, by phone 800.697.9350, or email [email protected].

Exhibition-Inspired Menu  

Inspired by Paris 1874, Sodexo Live!, the National Gallery’s food service provider, have prepared special, limited-edition dishes for the Garden Café and Cascade Café during the exhibition. Take a culinary tour through Paris with offerings including hearty steak frites and lobster bisque as well as desserts like French L’opera and Napoleon cakes. See the full menu here.