Durand-Ruel's Impressionists in Australia

Paul Durand-Ruel (1831–1922) was a Paris art dealer who, when the young Impressionist artists were critically shunned, bought their work. He helped their cause and eventually transformed public taste across Europe and US. In a life devoted to art, Paul bought and promoted 12,000+ works to ensure Impressionism was loved worldwide. Other experts ignored the new artists, so Impressionism mightn’t have got going without him.

This C19th dealer shaped the art market then by discovering artists who became global favourites. Durand-Ruel was a great purchaser. He was the first buyer of Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party & Monet's Stacks of Wheat, c100 works in Musée d'Orsay's Impressionist collection, and 100+ work in Dr Albert Barnes' Foundation, Philadel. 

Paul Durand-Ruel in his gallery in 1910
WAMU

In 1868, 2 years before he met Durand-Ruel, Claude Monet was so broke he tried to throw himself into the Seine. He and his friends had been slaving away in poverty for ages by then; the abstractions of colour & light they produced had so far only met with ridicule from Paris’ experts.

Durand-Ruel spotted their talent before anyone! In the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, he packed up his stock & left Paris for London. There an émigré-artist friend advised him: Check out the work of chaps named Monet and Pissarro. Claude Monet will surpass us all.

Pissarro heard about all the Monets that Durand-Ruel bought, and not wanting to miss out, brought his own works and left them at Durand-Ruel's gallery!!  Durand-Ruel wrote him a note saying: “I'm so sorry I missed you. I'm delighted with the paintings you left. Could you name a price & bring me others?". When he met other artists, the dealer immediately bought 29 of Alfred Sisley's paintings in that very first year!

Monet, Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies, 1899,
The Met Museum sent it to Australia

 
The dealer returned to Paris where he met Degas & Renoir, and started buying their works. He also bought from Pissarro & Sisley, within a year of meeting them. (NB Degas & Cassatt disliked the term Impressionism; it implied sloppiness). Luckily Durand-Ruel bought c200 Manets, 1,000+ Monets, 1,500 Renoirs, 800 Pissarros, 400 Sisleys and 400 Cassatts, c5,000 Impressionist works altogether.

It took 10-20 years for Durand-Ruel to sell some treasures. There was no ready audience for Monet's misty morning in Green Park London; Manet's battle scene between 2 ships carrying supplies in U.S’s Civil War and Degas' ballerinas. In 1876, when he filled 3 rooms of his rue Le Peletier gallery for a 2nd Impressionist show, French critics were vuglar. In reply to a Renoir nude in a sun-dappled setting, one said: Try to explain to Renoir a woman's flesh doesn't look like decomposing flesh!!

But Durand-Ruel remained loyal to his artists. He offered them innovative one-man shows and supported them by offering stipends. When they needed to pay rent or had bills, he’d offer them loans. Even later in the 1890s he made advances, helping them buy some properties. So when Monet bought his Giverny property, he used an advance for pictures that he would show at Durand-Ruel's gallery.

There were dark days when Durand-Ruel did lose money! Monet spoke of his frustration while painting on the Norman coast, threatening to destroy his canvases. Durand-Ruel said: Please don't do that. I'll send you money. Just send me the canvases in return. As well as friendship, financial & moral support, the dealer offered trust. He prized his bond with artists and didn’t like them talking to other dealers.
 
Was Paul a visionary, art lover or canny businessman? In his memoirs he commented about his love of art & support for artists & he was a fine entrepreneur with clever business practices. When Europe didn't like the Impressionists very much, the dealer packed 300 works in 43 crates & sailed to USA in 1886. In 3 months there, he displayed in eg Washington & Philadelphia, selling 49 pictures for c$40,000 and opening a N.Y Gallery! The works he sold became Impressionist centrepieces in major American museums.

When Paul was dying in 1922 at 89, the Impressionist masters had won. U.S saved Durand-Ruel and he saved Impressionism.

For its 130th year, the Geelong Gallery and Art Exhibitions Australia proudly presents Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel, Art Dealer Among the Artists, a most ambitious international exhibition in the Gallery’s history: Sat 20 June-Sun 11 Oct 2026. This major event puts the dealer who made the movement possible in the spotlight.

Geelong Gallery, Australia

Geelong has 70+ paintings in 5 galleries, from private French collections, never-before-seen outside Europe & UK. Along familiar names, the show praises a second generation of artists long overlooked, whose work expanded and reshaped how Impressionism has been looked at in its later paintings from 2 generations of Impressionists, most from private French collections. Impressionist works in the Gallery hang in direct dialogue with younger artists long overshadowed by their great predecessors: Albert André, Georges d'Espagnat, Gustave Loiseau, Maxime Maufra & Henry Moret. A rare chance to see the work.

Monet’s Haystacks, Midday (1890) is one that the Frenchman painted of wheat stacks adjoining his Giverny property near Paris. Seen as Monet’s finest series, Haystacks portrayed a fine range of light & weather conditions. Loaned by National Gallery of Aus through the Sharing the National Collection initiative, Monet’s Haystacks is displayed alongside works from Geelong Collection by Australian plein air painters of late C19th-early C20th. Some with a key role in Australian Impressionism, these artists loved Monet’s capturing the light effects, atmosphere and seasonal shifts in nature, the legacy of the visionary Paul Durand-Ruel. 

Geelong Gallery Impressionist catalogue, 2026

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It may seem unusual for the Geelong exhibition to focus on the seller of art works rather than painters of those works. Other dealers would buy a few works, wait for them to sell, then perhaps buy more. But Durand-Ruel bought large numbers of works. He could corner the market, plus it was a great show of support for the artists. Of course it was risky; it was a big gamble to invest so much money and much of his potential resources in artists. He was investing in the Impressionists artists who had not been widely recognised or liked. Thank you, Paul Durand-Ruel.