Barely sold for the price of the frame at the first Impressionist auction in 1875, Impressionist paintings, are now among the most expensive in the world, fetching over a hundred million dollars.

This lecture by Anne Catherine Abecassis focuses on how Monet, Renoir, Degas, and their colleagues had in the end, despite difficult beginnings, very successful careers. In order to emerge from the shadows, the artists had to dramatically modify the art world with the help of a few innovative art dealers and invent a new economic system that still exists today: the modern art market. The presentation examines the role of the seven Impressionist exhibitions of 1874-1886 in the emergence of the new art market and introduces the new strategies put in place by the artists and the first great Impressionist dealers: Paul Durand-Ruel, Georges Petit, and Ambroise Vollard.

Every month, on the third Saturday, Christophe and Anne-Catherine take turn and host a conference, followed by a short Q&A session.

The online lecture is available on replay at the link below:

Credit: Claude Monet, La Gare Saint-Lazare, 1877, Legs Gustave Caillebotte, 1894 © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt