In March 1886, the French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel set sail to New York with more than 300 paintings, among them 43 by Claude Monet and 35 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Back in Paris, the establishment was mocking the impressionists for their radical use of colour and bold, visible brushstrokes. Durand-Ruel \u2013 on the brink of financial ruin \u2013 was one of their few champions. Their last hope was to find new collectors abroad. <\/p>\n
Against the odds, his bet paid off. In the US, the impressionists found their first receptive public, rescuing the artists from obscurity and poverty and turning impressionism into a global phenomenon that remains to this day. <\/p>\n
In a fitting tribute to Durand-Ruel\u2019s global vision, more than 70 paintings that passed through the gallerist\u2019s hands have now made another cross-continental journey \u2013 this time to a port city on Australia\u2019s southern coast, where they are being exhibited at the Geelong Gallery, in Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel, art dealer among artists<\/a>.<\/p>\n Georges d\u2019Espagnat\u2019s Creek at Le Lavandou (Crique au Lavandou) c. 1899, collected by art dealer Durand-Ruel, who wanted to \u2018send the works as far as he could\u2019. Illustration: Photo Archives Durand-Ruel\/\u00a9 Durand-Ruel TM<\/p>\n It would have been \u201cno surprise\u201d to Durand-Ruel that these paintings have travelled to regional Australia, says Claire Durand-Ruel, the dealer\u2019s great-great-granddaughter, who co-curated the exhibition with the art historian Marianne Mathieu, a global authority on impressionism.<\/p>\n Claire studied archival records detailing the lengths her great-great-grandfather went to in the 19th century to ship paintings to America and into Russia. \u201cHe wanted to go as far as he could, to send the works as far as he could, all of his life,\u201d she says. \u201cThat was the policy of the Durand-Ruel Gallery. You cannot bring the people to your gallery, that\u2019s difficult, so the works have to move to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n The show is the most ambitious in the Geelong Gallery\u2019s 130-year history. Produced in partnership with Art Exhibitions<\/a> Australia and Mathieu\u2019s agency ACPA \u2013 Advising Curating Producing Art, the exhibition features works by Monet, Renoir, Berthe Morisot and Camille Pissarro. Almost all are on loan from private collections, mostly from Europe, so are rarely publicly exhibited anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n Woman and peacocks (La Femme aux paons) 1895 by Albert Andr\u00e9, a lesser known impressionist championed by Durand-Ruel. Illustration: Photo Archives Durand-Ruel\/\u00a9 Durand-Ruel TM<\/p>\n In dialogue with these giants of art history are pieces by a second wave of lesser-known impressionists also championed by Durand-Ruel \u2013 Albert Andr\u00e9, Georges d\u2019Espagnat, Gustave Loiseau, Maxime Maufra and Henry Moret. Mathieu thinks these painters have been neglected by art historians because their careers lacked the dramatic rupture from the establishment that defined those of their forerunners. \u201cWe want to put this generation at the level they deserve,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Claire believes visitors to the exhibition will instinctively understand why her ancestor backed these painters with the same conviction as the impressionist pioneers. She gestures to a large oil-on-canvas by Andr\u00e9 depicting a nude woman, flanked by peacocks, their iridescent feathers swirling around her.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is incredibly beautiful. That\u2019s what [Durand-Ruel] saw,\u201d she says. \u201cThese works deserve to be exhibited now because of both the quality of the art and the opportunity to educate people about other artists. He believed in them totally.\u201d<\/p>\n A portrait of Paul Durand-Ruel, from 1910, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Illustration: Photo Archives Durand-Ruel\/\u00a9 Durand-Ruel TM<\/p>\n As well as shining a light on a group of underappreciated artists, the show is also a homage to the pioneering art dealer and collector. At times, Durand-Ruel single-handedly kept artists employed by buying their paintings when no one else would. In the process, he nearly bankrupted himself twice.<\/p>\n Monet is recorded as saying: \u201cWithout Durand, we would have died of hunger, all of us impressionists. We owe him everything.\u201d Monet had an especially great debt of gratitude to Durand-Ruel: it was with a loan from the dealer that he bought his property at Giverny, where he lived for more than 40 years, painting water lilies and other scenes from his garden.<\/p>\n Art historian Marianne Mathieu, who co-curated Discovering the Impressionists at Geelong Gallery. Photograph: Kym Smith<\/p>\n To artists, Durand-Ruel was \u201ca paterfamilias [father figure], a confidant, a friend and a banker all rolled into one,\u201d Claire writes in the exhibition catalogue. Looking back, she is amazed and touched by his faith in the paintings, especially through years of public condemnation. \u201cHe had both vision and stubbornness,\u201d she says, laughing. \u201cHe was so optimistic. He\u2019s very impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, the artists Durand-Ruel supported are some of the most famous in history. Their work sells for up to hundreds of millions of dollars, is collected by top museums and has been exhibited in almost every corner of the globe. Australia alone held major French impressionism shows in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2025 \u2013 some of which were returning shows that were cut short during pandemic lockdowns. They sparked criticism for being formulaic crowd-pullers<\/a>, prioritising spectacle over new ideas, although Mathieu believes there is still much to learn about the movement.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m searching every day, all the time, and there are still things to bring into the light,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are still many things to discover.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond the intellectual, both curators hope the exhibition will spark emotions. \u201cI want visitors to have a sense of beauty,\u201d Mathieu says. \u201cI want them to experience how wonderful these paintings are. These paintings of colour, of light, of happiness and hope.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pure joy,\u201d adds Claire. In today\u2019s world, she says, \u201cit\u2019s what people need\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In March 1886, the French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel set sail to New York with more than 300…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-474019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}