2024 is the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition which opened in Paris on the boulevard des Capucines on 15 April 1874. The Musée d’Orsay is preparing a major exhibition to celebrate this anniversary - Paris 1874 – Inventing Impressionism (26 March - 14 July 2024). More events are scheduled in provincial museums especially in Normandy.

Though of course much smaller than the Impressionist collection of the Musée d’Orsay, London's National Gallery is home to some of the most important work of the impressionist movement, arranged thematically in grand, bright rooms. It is an excellent venue for us to begin our series of lectures marking the 1874 Impressionist anniversary this spring.

In total, the National Gallery’s permanent collection exhibits 80 important impressionist & works. Claude Monet leads the way, with 17 paintings, followed by Degas, Cezanne, Pissarro and Renoir. Our presentation will focus on the best-known and also the historically most significant works : From Monet’s misty vision of Big Ben (1871), Renoir’s Umbrellas (1881-86), Pissarro’s Boulevard Montmartre at Night (1897), Manet’s Music in the Tuileries (1867), Cézanne’s Great Bathers (1905), Degas’ Miss Lala at the Cirque Fernando (1879) to the monumental masterpiece, which is Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières (1884).