If each member of the committee approved a work, it was accepted for display and hung “on the line,” hanging at the ideal viewing height in the gallery. Acceptance by the Salon was critical to those hoping to achieve success and sell their work.Īs seen in the image below, thousands of artists competed for entry into this distinguished exhibition, subjecting their work to the scrutiny of a small committee of judges that had the power not only to accept or reject a painting but to rank it as well. What happened to artists who dared to challenge established tastes and standards? Many of them found that their work was not accepted for display at the government-sanctioned, annual Paris Salon, the most important art show of the time. “There is little doubt that Impressionist landscape paintings are the most…appreciated works of art ever produced.” –Richard Brettell and Scott Schaefer, A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape
“What do we see in the work of these men? Nothing but defiance, almost an insult to the tastes and intelligence of the public.” -Etienne Carjat, “L’exposition du bouldevard des Capucines,” Le Patriote Francais (1874) Why did these young artists cause such an uproar? The following comparison shows how their radical ideas, techniques, and subjects broke the time-honored rules and traditions of art in late 19 th-century France. But in 1874, when the men and women who came to be known as the Impressionists first exhibited their work, their style of painting was considered shocking and outrageous by all but the most forward-thinking viewers. The word “impressionism” makes most people think of beautiful, sunlit paintings of the French countryside glorious gardens and lily ponds and fashionable Parisians enjoying life in charming cafes.
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