From the Director:
I think it’s fair to say that the group of artists working in late 19th-century Paris and that we call ‘the Impressionists’ are the most popular group in art history. Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Cassatt, Manet, Morisot, Pissarro, Caillebotte and others. Yet in their own lifetimes they knew poverty and rejection. Some were lucky enough to have independent incomes but others could barely scrape enough together to eat. Certainly, to begin with, there was no market for their art. Indeed many in the art world hated the work of the Impressionists with a passion. In every film I have made I love to look at all the different contexts to truly understand what was going on. Family origins, artistic contemporaries, historical events, luck, technological developments, etc. One of these vital factors that has affected every artist in history is the economic context – whether it be the role of patronage or the role of the open market. When I heard that the Museé d’Orsay in Paris, the National Gallery in London and the Washington DC National Gallery of Art were working on a show about Paul Durand-Ruel, the dealer who risked bankruptcy to finally create the market for impressionism – a market that now sees their works sold for tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars – it was an obvious story for an Exhibition on Screen film. I have learned an enormous amount and enjoyed looking afresh at some wonderful art – I hope you will too.
Phil Grabsky
