[Encyclios]

Other exhibitions [1876-86]

The second exhibition of the group took place in 1876 at the merchant Durand-Ruel and attracted very few visitors, although the judgment of the critics was more favorable: Philippe Burty, J.-A. Philippe Burty, J.-A. Castagnary, Georges Rivière (who published the magazine “L’impressioniste”) and others began to defend them; more than any other, Duranty supported them in his New Painting (1876). The third exhibition (1877) presented to the public the most splendid Sisley’s (The Flood at Port-Marly, 1876, Paris, Louvre) and Renoir’s dazzling, dazzling Ball at the Moulin de la Galette (1876, Paris, Louvre).

It constituted perhaps the most homogeneous exhibition of the group: Th. Duret openly supported it in his book on Impressionist Painters (1878). But from the fourth exhibition (1879) until the eighth (1886), disagreements surfaced, along with the desire of some to succeed at the Salon. Pissarro introduced Gauguin, and Degas imposed his friends F. Zandomeneghi and J.-Fr. Raffaelli. Renoir and Sisley, Monet and Cézanne gradually moved away from the group. Disagreements arose that foreshadowed the now imminent break: each seemed to tend towards a hardening of their methods; this became evident at the 1883 exhibition, the year of Manet’s death, and was confirmed by later production.

As Venturi observes, “Monet showed that he opted for a symbolism of colors and light” (the series of The Cathedral of Rouen, 1894, Paris, Louvre; the views of London, 1904 and Venice, 1908; the Water Lilies, 1915, Paris, Jeu de Paume); “Pissarro was attracted by the “pointillisme” (L’Ile Lacroix, Rouen, Fog Effect, 1888, Philadelphia, private collection); “Renoir wanted to be a painter, but he did not want to be a painter. priv.); “Renoir wanted to assimilate elements of academic form” (Les grandes baigneuses, 1884-87, Paris, Louvre); finally, “Cézanne focused his attention on problems of structure” (Rocks in the Woods, 1896-98, Zurich, Kunsthaus); and “Sisley resolved his problem in mannerism” (Moret, the banks of the Loing, 1892, Paris, Louvre).

It was thanks to Pissarro, the only one always present at the eight collective events, that the last one, in 1886, took place. But of the initial group there were now only Degas, Guillaumin and Berthe Morisot, submerged or almost submerged by those who already showed their reaction to Impressionism, both in the name of idealism and spirituality (O. Redon, Gauguin, the initiators of Symbolism), and in the name of science and physiology of vision (Seurat, Signac, protagonists of the last aesthetic subversion of Impressionism).