Inventing Impressionism: The man who sold a thousand Monet’s

Fantastic exhibition at the National Gallery looking at the life, work and collections of Paul Durand-Ruel, the art dealer who championed the Impressionists.

From the first room which is laid out to represent Durand-Ruel’s grand salon, complete with arm chairs, doors painted by Monet and a selection of painting which were known to have hung in that room including two Renoirs of dancers.

Durand-Ruel developed a new way of dealing in and showing art. He introduced the idea of exclusivity deals with artists and showed off the work of his artists at exhibitions and in in publications. Prior to this the main place to display art was the jury-selected salon. One room was devoted to two exhibitions by Monet in 1883 and 1892, the first time a retrospective had been held of a living artists work. The second exhibition had featured 15 of the poplar series and five of them were displayed here again brought together from all over the world.

I loved the final room which brought together works which had been shown at the 1905 exhibition at the Grafton Galleries in London.

This show is interesting on so many levels as a history of the start of the modern art trade, a study of a group of people or just some stunningly lovely pictures. 

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