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PODCAST. Rejected by the official salons, young painters claiming to follow Monet rent the photographer Nadar’s studio to exhibit together.
Par Frédéric Lewino et Gwendoline Dos Santos
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They are not yet called the Impressionists. They are simply young painters who wish to explore new horizons, who wish to paint with their guts, to give free rein to emotion. And no longer be confined to representing a photographic reality. How many are they ? Maybe thirty. From 1869, they admired Édouard Manet. It is referred to as the Groupe des Batignolles because of the neighborhood where they meet.
The bourgeois press shuns them, calling them talentless beginners; the classical painters mock them. Before the Seventy War, these avant-garde artists exhibited their works at the Salon des Refusés. But this no longer exists. So, as the official Paris Salon is inaccessible to them, they decide to organize their own exhibition…