Everyone’s favourite art movement was famously assembled from a ragtag rabble of rejects and outsiders. Last year, the Musee d’Orsay and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC combined forces to recreate the 1874 exhibition where the artists (Monet, Cezanne, Renioir, Degas, Morisot among them) defiantly pitched their tent in opposition to the Academy’s all powerful Salon. The latest Exhibition on Screen film contextualizses this landmark show with correspondence and journal entries from the leading figures in what would come to be known as Impressionism, and looks also at the conservative taste in art as exemplified by the Salon. It’s also a useful reminder of the turbulent unrest which swirled around France in the years 1870-73, a time of war, upheaval and starvation.
Ali Ray
UK
2025
English
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