Even the great Ingres, an Academy member and professor of painting for whom the defence of Classicism was a matter of honour, was saying that the Salon was perverting and suffocating the artist’s sense of grandeur and beauty. Ingres saw that exhibiting in the Salon awakened an interest in financial gain, the desire to achieve recognition at any cost, and that the Salon itself was changing into a sales room by selling paintings in a market inundated with items for sale, instead of a place where art dominated commerce. Moreover, too many artists remained outside of the exhibit, either because of professional mediocrity or because they failed to meet the criteria of Neo-classical painting.
In 1855, only 2,000 out of 8,000 submissions were accepted for the Salon that coincided with the World Exposition. Gustave Courbet’s best work was rejected, including his famous Burial at Ornans.
Entrance to the Port of Trouville, 1870.
Oil on canvas, 54 × 65.7 cm. Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest.
The Beach at Trouville, 1870. Oil on canvas, 53.5 × 65 cm.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford (Connecticut).
Jury members felt that his artistic leanings would have a fatal effect on French art. Indeed, Courbet was the first serious arsonist. He wrote in the catalogue to his individual exhibition:
I have studied the art of the ancients and moderns outside of the system and without taking part in it. I no more wanted to imitate the one than I wanted to copy the other…No! From a full awareness of tradition I simply wanted to draw the intelligent and independent feeling of my own individuality. To know how to, in order to be able to: such was my thinking. To be able to translate the values, ideas, and reality of my time, according to my own understanding; in short, to make a living art, that is my goal.
This statement by Courbet could have just as easily been made by the Impressionists, because, although using somewhat different means, all these artists aspired to the same goal. Each of the future Impressionists tried, with mixed results, to get into the Salon. In 1864, Pissarro and Renoir were lucky enough to be admitted, although Renoir’s accepted painting, Esmeralda, was considered a critical failure for the artist, who destroyed it as soon as the Salon closed. In 1865, paintings by Pissarro, Renoir, and Monet were accepted. In 1866, all the Impressionists – Monet, Bazille, Renoir, Sisley, and Pissarro – had their works accepted.
Pissarro was singled out in a review of the Salon by the young literary figure Émile Zola. Zola wrote that nobody would talk about Pissarro because he was unknown and that nobody liked his painting because he strove for Realism. It is possible that the future Impressionists sometimes got their paintings into the Salon simply because nobody knew who they were yet.
The jury of 1867 was harsh towards the young painters: Bazille was rejected and among the many paintings submitted by Monet, only one was selected. Zola, who typically focused on young artists in his reviews (as if he had failed to notice the academic paintings), wrote to a friend that the jury, annoyed by his ‘Salon’, had closed its doors to all those seeking new artistic paths. The Salon of 1868 nevertheless showed works by all five future Impressionists. Even so, all of them felt an increasing desire to exhibit outside of the Salon.
The idea of having a separate exhibition probably came from Courbet’s example. He was the first to actually do it. In 1865, he hastily set up a shelter on the Champs-Elysées near the World Exposition with a sign that read “Pavilion of Realism”, sparking strong interest among the public. “People pay money to go to the theatre and concerts,” said Courbet, “don’t my paintings provide entertainment? I have never sought to live off the favour of governments…I only appeal to the public”. The future Impressionists wanted to attract attention, too. Even when they found their way into the Salon, their modest little landscapes were only noticed by their close friends.
Hôtel des roches noires. Trouville, 1870.
Oil on canvas, 81 × 58.5 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Garden at Sainte-Adresse, 1867. Oil on canvas, 98.1 × 129.9 cm.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The Beach at Sainte-Adresse, 1867.
Oil on canvas, 75.8 × 102.5 cm. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.
Garden of the Princess, Louvre (Le Jardin de l’Infante), 1867.
Oil on canvas, 91.8 × 61.9 cm. Allen Memorial
Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin (Ohio).
In April 1867, Frédéric Bazille wrote to his parents: “We’ve decided to rent a large studio every year where we’ll exhibit as many of our works as we want. We’ll invite the painters we like to send paintings. Courbet, Corot, Díaz, Daubigny, and many others… have promised to send us paintings and very much like our idea. With those painters, and Monet, who is the strongest of all, we’re sure to succeed. You’ll see, people are going to be talking about us.”
Organising an exhibition turned out to be no simple matter – it required money and contacts.
One month later, Bazille wrote to his father:
I told you about the project of a few young men having an independent exhibit. After thoroughly exhausting our resources, we’ve succeeded in collecting a sum of 2,500 francs, which is insufficient. We’re thus forced to give up on what we wanted to do. We must return to the bosom of officialdom, which never nourished us and which renounces us.
In the spring of 1867, Courbet and Édouard Manet each had their own solo exhibitions, after the Salon’s jury refused the paintings that they wanted to display there. Inspired by these examples, the future Impressionists never abandoned the idea of an independent exhibition, but left it to slowly ripen as they continued to work.
Friends of the artists worried about the consequences of such an exhibit. The famous critic Théodore Duret advised them to continue seeking success at the Salon. He felt that it would be impossible for them to achieve fame through group exhibitions: the public largely ignored such shows, which were only attended by the artists and the admirers who already knew them.
Duret suggested that they select their most finished works for the Salon, works with a subject, traditional composition, and colour that was not too pure: in short, that they find a compromise with official art. He thought the only way they could cause a stir and attract the attention of the public and critics was at the Salon.
Some of the future Impressionists did endeavour to compromise. In 1873, Renoir painted a huge canvas entitled, Riding in the Bois de Boulogne, which claimed the status of an elevated society portrait. The jury rejected the painting and Renoir displayed it in the Salon des Refusés, which had reopened in 1863.
When the time came to organise the first Impressionist exhibition, Bazille was no longer with the group, having died in 1870 in the Franco-German war, so the bold and determined Monet assumed leadership of the young painters. In his opinion they had to create a sensation and achieve success through an independent exhibition, and the others agreed with him.
Sainte-Adresse, 1867. Oil on canvas, 57 × 80 cm.
Gift of Catherine Gamble Curran and family, in honour of the 50th anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The Seine at Bougival, 1869. Oil on canvas, 65.4 × 92.4 cm.
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester (New Hampshire).
Exhibiting on their own nevertheless was a little frightening and they tried to invite as many of their friends as possible.