Impressionnisme

In 1874, when the first exhibition of the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers was held, the lenders of the works for the event, as well as for the seven other exhibitions organised by the group that followed, were regularly the artists themselves. Each of them had already, or acquired at the same time, tutelary figures from the history of art, who encouraged them in their own plastic research, such as Corot, Delacroix, Ingres and Millet. The common interest in the latter, but also the fraternal and supportive nature of the Impressionist adventure, led the artists to make gifts and exchanges, testimony to mutual trust and respect, but also to alliances. Moreover, the comfortable income obtained by some of them encouraged them to make purchases, from dealers and at public sales, in order to obtain works by their Impressionist colleagues. Indeed, the development of the art market, through the advent of the figure of the merchant as well as auctions, fundamentally contributed to the enrichment of the artists' collections. In this sense, the economic environment in which the impressionists evolved, but also the fraternity that animated them, the direct access to plastic research and the common will to find a new identity, contributed to an intense and early circulation of works.