On 15 April 1874, the first Impressionist exhibition opened in Paris, held at the former studio of the photographer Nadal. A group of artists led by Monet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot, Pissarro, Sisley and Cézanne, tired of rejection by the official Salon, decided to hold their own exhibition, free from what they saw as outdated Salon rules.

Later that month, journalist Louis Leroy wrote a mocking sketch in the satirical magazine ‘Le Charivari’ in which he called the paintings on display slapdash and superficial and creating no more than “impressions”, a term he lifted from the title of a painting by Claude Monet entitled ‘Impressions, Sunrise’ – the group had been given their name.

To mark the 150th anniversay of the first exhibition, Musée d’Orsay presented 130 paintings and works on paper from both the Impressionist exhibition and, by way of contrast, paintings from that year’s Salon.

Works from the 1874 Impressionist exhibition

Paul Cézanne’ Une moderne Olympia’ (1873 – 74)

Edgar Degas ‘Répétition d’un ballet sur la scène’ (1874)

Berthe Morisot ‘Le berceau’ (1872)

Claude Monet ‘Coquelicots’ (1873)

Claude Monet ‘Impression, Soleil Levant’ (1873)

Claude Monet ‘Le déjeuner’ (1868 – 69)

Camille Pissarro ‘La Jardin de la Ville Pontoise’ (1874)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir ‘Danseuse’ (1874)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir ‘La Loge’ (1874)

Alfred Sisley ‘L’automne – Bords de la Seine pres Bougival’ (1873)

Works from the 1874 Salon

Jules Bastien-Lepage ‘Portrait du grand-père de l’artiste’ (1874)

Edouard Dantan ‘Moine sculptant un Christ en bois’ (1874)

Ferdinand Humbert ‘La Vierge, l’Enfant Jésus et saint Jean-Baptiste’ (c.1874)

Edouard Manet ‘Le Chemin de fer’ (1873)

Works from the 1877 Impressionist exhibition

Gustave Caillebotte ‘Peintres en bâtiment.’ (1877)

Claude Monet ‘La Gare Saint-Lazare’ (1877)

Claude Monet ‘Les Dindons’ (1877)

Auguste Renoir ‘Bal du moulin de la Galette’ (1876)

Auguste Renoir ‘La balançoire’ (1876)