
"Sunday Morning" archives: Impressionism at 150
CBSN
On April 15, 1874 – 150 years ago – the first Impressionist exhibition opened on Rue du Capucines in Paris, featuring works by 30 artists, including Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Hosted by the "Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers, etc.," it was founded in response to the Paris Salon, the annual, government-sponsored exhibition that would frequently reject the works of the rising artists.
The show, which ran for about a month (overlapping the start of the 1874 Salon), was a financial failure for the artists. Only 3,500 patrons attended. The response was hostile; critics coined the term "Impressionist" as a derogatory term, inspired by Monet's "Impression, Sunrise."
History has proved those critics wrong. From the "Sunday Morning" archives, watch these fascinating portraits of the innovative painters who created a new language of art.