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 – on the brink of financial ruin – was one of their few champions. Their last hope was to find new collectors abroad.
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.
In a fitting tribute to Durand-Ruel’s global vision, more than 70 paintings that passed through the gallerist’s hands have now made another cross-continental journey – this time to a port city on Australia’s southern coast, where they are being exhibited at the Geelong Gallery, in Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel, art dealer among artists.
It would have been “no surprise” to Durand-Ruel that these paintings have travelled to regional Australia, says Claire Durand-Ruel, the dealer’s great-great-granddaughter, who co-curated the exhibition with the art historian Marianne Mathieu, a global authority on impressionism.
