How did they exhibit?
Both Degas and Manet are aware of the importance of official salons, whether the academic one or the one desired by Napoleon III (the so-called “rejected one”).
This type of event then further determines the reputation of the artist.
Manet will always participate in it, finding success there, notably - but not only - through a succession of scandals (that of Le
Déjeuner sur l'herbe
, then
Christ aux anges
and again Olympia
)
.
Degas, for his part, exhibited with indifference, despite the ingresque beauty of his
Bellelli Family
or the violence of
Scene of War in the Middle Ages
.
It is true that these canvases, when presented, were hung very high, eight or ten meters, as the academic Sophie Basch recently discovered.
Faced with this failure, Degas then favored the independent network of dealers and amateurs he had built up, vainly inviting Manet to join him in what would be the first Impressionist exhibition.
That of 1874, without jury or medal, boulevard des Capucines…
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