Although Canadian artists had been travelling and studying in France since the late 1870s, and had thus been exposed to Impressionism from the movement’s inception, conservative tastes continued to prevail in Canada, governing the local art market until the turn of the 20th century. In 1892 however, Montreal gallery and art dealer W. Scott & Sons inaugurated the first exhibition of French Impressionism in Canada, on loan from the collection of Paul Durand-Ruel. In 1895, the Art Association of Montreal opened The Eighteenth Loan Exhibition of Paintings, highlighting works from prominent private collections across Montreal. Among Old Master and Hague School paintings, works by Cassatt, Renoir, Pissarro, and Monet demonstrated the evolving tastes of local collectors. These exhibitions provided the Montreal public an opportunity to view the works of the renowned French Impressionists while Canadian artists, returning home from their sojourns abroad, began to apply Impressionist principles to local subjects. The public engagement afforded by the Art Association of Montreal exhibition and others like it, predicated on the availability of French Impressionist works in local collections, therefore played a key role in creating an artistic market and cultural climate that would grow to welcome and encourage the development of Canadian Impressionism.

Los Angeles, and particulary Hollywood, remains the historic capital of cinema. Regarding the art market, the situation is different. As the city grew and became richer, it gradually gained collectors. When did this movement really develop ? Who played a role in the developpement of this art market ? How was Impressionism then considered ? An historical outlook and a description of different collections will allow us to present some answers to these questions. This will raise another one: since the collectors are also often from film industry, what kind of relationship do they have to impressionist works? How to consider the circulation from one medium to another?

In 1902, art critic Arsène Alexandre published an article in Le Figaro in which he referred to the painters of Rouen, emulators of the Impressionist movement, by the term "School of Rouen". This publication was not insignificant, as it responded to a direct request from the manufacturer and art collector François Depeaux, who wished to promote the Parisian exhibition of one of the group members: Joseph Delattre (1858-1912). Thus, even though the painters of Rouen have been exhibiting, meeting and even defending themselves since 1880, it was under the impetus of their patron and collector that the name still used today was formed. Previously referred to as the "Rouen Impressionists", this new name raises questions. In what way and how does this exogenous nomination, which is also a form of designation, contribute to an identity that ensures a form of recognition for these artists? From this point of view, studying the school of Rouen through the prism of the collection, by questioning more particularly the collectors' motivations, enables us to provide some answers. From François Depeaux, patron and promoter of the painters of Rouen, to Antonin Personnaz, friend and collector of the Impressionist masters, through Constant Roussel or Paul Krôn, who are the collectors of the school of Rouen and why do they collect them?