Figure 12.2 The Races at Longchamp, 1866, by Édouard Manet, oil on canvas, 85 × 44 cm, Chicago Institute of Art.
The exhibition was held in the studio of the photographer Nadar in the centre of Paris. Critics wrote that they couldn’t draw, that their colours were vulgar and that their compositions were strange.
The Impressionists One art critic, Louis Leroy, described Impression,
Sunrise by Claude Monet (Fig. 12.3) as ‘an impression of nature, nothing more. Wallpaper in its preliminary state is more finished!’ He wondered, ‘Who were these “Impressionists”?’
Following the exhibition, all the artists except one – Edgar Degas – agreed to use this new name.
Figure 12.3
Impression, Sunrise, 1872, by Claude Monet, oil on canvas, 48 × 63 cm, Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.
