Nowadays, impressionism is one of painting´s most admired movements but most people don´t know that the global success of this pictoric movement owes its existence to the efforts of the great French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, entrepreneur and visionary.
Portrait of Paul Durand-Ruel, Renoir
In 1865 he got in charge of his father´s art gallery, which main purpose was the promotion and display of all works of the artists that belonged to Barbizon School (painters who started to paint outdoors). Later on, he opened his own art gallery and began to meet many artists as Pissarro, Degas, Sisley, Renoir and Monet. Durand- Ruel purchased all Monet´s pictorial production and many great works of the others too.
Ballet, Degas
The Japanese bridge, Monet
He organised numerous impressionist art exhibitions during his life, the first one in 1872, not only in Paris but also in London, Brussels, Boston, New York… We have to admit that not all of them were successful.
Once experts recognized the great artistic value of the paintings, Durand-Ruel decided to open branches of his Paris art gallery in London, Brussels and New York. American art collectors were the first ones to realise of the genius of these artists.
Durand-Ruel was a pioneering art dealer, developing new methods for the promotion and sales of the paintings. He was a man gifted with a great artistic flair and extraordinary commercial insight.
More than being an art dealer to impressionist painters for four decades, he was also their patron, many times lodging and feeding his painters. He risked bankruptcy offenly to support them, would they have been succesful and left us such a great treasures without him?
The boulevard Montmartre by night, Pissarro
The boat in the flood, Sisley
Between 1891 and 1922, Durand-Ruel bought almost 12.000 paintings including more than 1.000 Monets, 1.500 Renoirs, more than 400 works by Degas, Sisley and Boudin, 800 Pissarros, 200 Manets and close to 400 Mary Cassats.
This post is a tribute to the man who devoted his lifetime to the recognition of this new artistic movement. Renoir said that the true merit of Paul Durand was his love for art, and his deepest artistic convictions allowed him to sacrifice everything to maintain his painters.
Lunch of the twenty rowers, Renoir
Lady in the toilet, Morisot
Dance class, Degas