Insult to Icon

The 1874 exhibition the group organized was both a rebellion and a business move. Shut out of the Salon, they rented a photographer's studio and charged admission. Critics attacked them viciously.

One reviewer seized on Monet's Impression, Sunrise and used the title to mock the whole group as mere "Impressionists." Within twenty years, the rebels had won: their paintings now hang in every major museum and sell for huge sums at auction.