The Role of Art Dealer Durand-Ruel
The visionary Parisian art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel (1831–1922) played a key role in the Impressionists’ ultimate success. He originally discovered and thereupon consistently supported the artists and is even considered to be the founder of the art market as it exists today.
Durand-Ruel encountered Monet, Degas, Pissarro, and Renoir in the early 1870s. He started purchasing their artwork at a time when they were mainly ignored and ridiculed by the art establishment. Durand-Ruel supported them financially during their early years of struggle while also giving them moral support and soon became their most important benefactor. At times, it even seemed that the art dealer had dedicated his whole life to leading the Impressionists to fame and success.
Durand-Ruel developed entirely new art business strategies such as arranging one-man shows, and he turned his Paris based business into a global company with galleries in London, New York, and Brussels. He moreover organized Impressionist exhibitions around the world, bringing the artists to recognition and success step by step. Durand-Ruel even purchased a massive number of Impressionist paintings himself: he bought about 1,500 Renoirs, 1,000 Monets, 800 Pissarros, and hundreds of pieces from other Impressionists such as Édouard Manet, Alfred Sisley, and Mary Cassatt. In 1924, Monet stated, “Without Durand, we would have starved, all us Impressionists.”
Impressionists around the World
The Impressionist movement came to influence the entire art world. Major British Impressionists include Walter Richard Sickert and Wilson Steer; core German Impressionists were Max Liebermann, Ernst Oppler, and Paul Klimsch. In Italy, Giuseppe Abbati and Eugenio Gignous joined the Impressionist group, and in Austria, Emil Jakob Schindler and Carl Schuch became renowned representatives of the movement. Impressionism spread around the globe, with solicitors in various countries.
The Breakup of the Group
By the mid-1880s, the core French Impressionist group began to fall apart as the artists increasingly followed their own principles and interests. However, in its short span of existence, the movement had fulfilled a revolution in art history by freeing artists from the pressure of meeting traditional guidelines and academic standards.
Impressionism Today
Today, Impressionism can be referred to as the “holy grail” in the art world. Impressionist paintings regularly break price records at international art auctions; Monet’s “Meules” (“Haystacks”), for example, sold for $110.7 million at Sotheby’s in New York in May 2019. Far and wide, there seems to be no end in sight regarding the high demand for Impressionist masterpieces.
