DAWN OF IMPRESSIONISM
2025 | Dir Ali Ray | 92m | 
UK
This latest documentary from Exhibition on Screen is based on last year’s major exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay. 1874 was a pivotal year for the Impressionists, when they organised their own independent exhibition of their work, away from the official Salon de Paris. The works of Monet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot, Pissarro, Sisley and Cézanne are compared with those of the official Salon of that year, with comments from the artists, press and people of Paris, 1874.
See Ali Ray’s (Director) further information further below.
We do not show adverts – please arrive to take your allocated seat by the time shown.
Trailer below.
Tuesday 22 April 2025 at 2.30pm
Tuesday 22 April 2025 at 7.30pm
Director Ali Ray statement
In 1874, a group of disillusioned Parisian artists “hungry for independence” broke the mould by holding their own exhibition outside official channels, an event that has since taken on legendary status as the pivotal moment in Western Art. At the time, they were ridiculed mercilessly by many critics for their new style, yet these outsiders went on to become the iconic founders of the world’s favourite art movement. 150 years later, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the National Gallery of Art in Washington are revisiting this groundbreaking event in a major exhibition.
For this film, our approach is a little different. Instead of looking at the event through the eyes of modern experts, curators and art historians, we are telling this story of passion and rebellion exclusively through the words of those who witnessed the dawn of Impressionism: the artists, writers and journalists of Paris, 1874. You will be transported to the world of the people who lived, worked and wondered about life in the pivotal years that led up to the opening of the doors of Nadar’s Studio on April 15th, 1874.
Having read the letters and diary entries of the artists that created the works and also the critic’s reviews after seeing them for the first time during the month-long exhibition, I feel closer to these incredible works and the people who created them. I also feel very differently about these works now compared to how I felt when I had only read modern day commentaries. I hope that this film opens your eyes anew to this unique moment in art history.