Claude Monet. Volume 1. Nina Kalitina

exhibition.

      He succeeded in attracting his friends, the sculptor Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic and the engraver Giuseppe de Nittis, both very popular Salon artists. Degas also actively tried to persuade top society painter James Tissot and his friend Alphonse Legros (who was living in London) to join their cause, but was unsuccessful. At the invitation of Pissarro, they were joined by an employee of the Orleans railroad company who was painting plein-air landscapes named Armand Guillaumin. Paul Cézanne travelled to the exhibition from his native town of Aix-en-Provence, also at Pissarro’s invitation.

      The young Cézanne had broken with official painting in his earliest works, but he no longer shared the Impressionists’ outlook on art. His participation may have aroused the concern of Édouard Manet, who definitely had been invited. According to his contemporaries, Manet said that he would never exhibit alongside Cézanne. But Manet may have simply preferred a different path. According to Monet, Manet encouraged Monet and Renoir to continue in their attempts to conquer the Salon. Manet found the Salon to be the best battlefield.

      In Degas’ opinion, Manet was prevented from joining them because of vanity. “The Realist movement doesn’t need to fight with others,” Degas said. “It is, it exists, and it must stand alone. A Realist salon is needed. Manet did not understand that. I believe it was due much more to vanity than to intelligence.”