2024 is the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition which opened in Paris on the boulevard des Capucines on 15 April 1874. The Musée d’Orsay, Paris celebrated this anniversary with a major exhibition - “Paris 1874 – Inventing Impressionism” (26 March - 14 July 2024) of 130 works. The same exhibition under the title - “Paris 1874 – the Impressionist Moment”, will be on view at the National Gallery, Washington DC, from 8 September 2024 to 19 January 2025.

A selection of works shown in the original show is juxtaposed to works shown at the Paris Salon of the period, emphasizing the visual shock the new paintings provided to the Paris public, but also establishing more nuanced parallels between the Impressionists and the Salon painters. This is a wonderful opportunity to discover the first major paintings by Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Degas, Manet, Cézanne and the many other painters who took part in the Impressionist and Salon Paris exhibitions of the crucial year of 1874.