IMPRESSIONISTS BOOK

Whether or not they set out to be 'Impressionists'; whether or not they accepted that label, that name provided by the circumstances; whether or not they sought to merge into one movement; whether or not they managed to establish their genius beyond Impressionism itself, for us Cézanne, Degas, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley nevertheless form the first real movement in modern painting, and the words that Zola wrote in 1877 on the occasion of their third group exhibition still offer a perfect definition of its nature, concerns and limits:

"This is the third time these painters have submitted their works to the public, outside the official Salons. At first they wanted to avoid the judgment of the jury, which diverts any original efforts from the Salon. They thus found themselves forming a homogeneous group, with all of them having a more or less similar view of nature; and so they picked up the description that had been made of them, "Impressionist," and used it as a banner. They were called Impressionists in a spirit of mockery;

Impressionists they remained out of pluck. Now, I do not believe there are grounds for trying to find out what exactly this word means. It is a good label, as all labels are. In France, schools make their way only once they have been baptized, even if the word is far-fetched. I think that by

"Impressionist painters" we should understand painters who paint reality and pride themselves on conveying the impression of Nature itself, which they do not study in its details but as a whole. [...] But fortunately, there is something more than theory to this group. By which I mean that they are genuine painters, artists endowed with the greatest merits.'