S8 Ep255: THE 1874 EXHIBITION AND THE BIRTH OF IMPRESSIONISM Colleague Sebastian Smee. In the spring of 1874, a group of painters including Degas, Monet, Pissarro, and Renoir gathered at the studio of the photographer Nadar to exhibit their work outside the establi

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 28 December 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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THE 1874 EXHIBITION AND THE BIRTH OF IMPRESSIONISM Colleague Sebastian Smee. In the spring of 1874, a group of painters including Degas, Monet, Pissarro, and Renoir gathered at the studio of the photographer Nadar to exhibit their work outside the established "Salon" system. This group, organizing themselves as the "Société Anonyme," had grown tired of the Salon's hierarchical preference for large-scale history and religious paintings over landscapes and contemporary life. The movement received its name from a critic who wrote a parody of the exhibition, seizing upon the title of Claude Monet's painting, Impression, Sunrise, to mock the work as unfinished sketches lacking structure or deep meaning. While photography existed, these painters sought to tell the story of their times through a revolutionary style that defied convention. Notably absent from this founding exhibition was Édouard Manet, the group's "blood brother" and inspiration, who still believed success required acceptance within the official Salon. NUMBER 1
1849 MONET

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0:00.0	This is CBS Eye on the World.
0:08.5	Here's John Batchelor.
0:12.2	This is CBS, I on the World.
0:14.9	I'm John Batchel.
0:16.1	It is the spring of 1874 in Paris, April 15th, on Boulevard Capucine. A studio associated with
0:25.3	Nadar, a man named Nadar, is opening an exhibit of paintings by men who don't have an
0:32.4	organizing principle yet. They call themselves the Societ Anonymous. They are de Ga, Monet, Mouin, Bizarro, Redmore,
0:42.9	Sicily, Cézanne, especially Monet. And they gather to show off their paintings
0:51.5	quite outside the accepted way to do this at an enterprise called the salon.
0:58.3	I stopped there and turned to the man who introduced me to all of these intricacies.
1:04.9	Sebastian Smee, the new book is Paris and Ruins, Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism.
1:10.8	These are parallel universes.
1:12.9	The politics of France, in the middle of the 19th century, as America is recovering from the
1:19.8	civil war, are as violent and unending as anything that can be seen in all of Europe and in America.
1:27.6	At the same time, these painters who are now all extremely world famous,
1:33.9	are living their lives under the guns all the time.
1:37.9	But this meeting in 1874 is their way of moving towards the future.
1:45.2	Sebastian, congratulations, a very good evening to you,
1:49.0	the men who gathered there, and one woman in particular, Bert Morissau.
1:53.8	What was their ambition?
1:55.4	Why did they set up their own show,
1:58.0	knowing that they were outside the accepted way
	...

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