Public Reception and Critical Response

The 1874 exhibition was a financial disaster but a succès de scandale. About 3,500 visitors attended over its month-long run—respectable but far short of the Salon's hundreds of thousands. Sales were minimal, and the company had to be dissolved to pay debts. Critical response was largely hostile, with reviewers competing to craft the cleverest insults.

Yet not all responses were negative. A few perceptive critics recognized something new and valuable in the work. Ernest Chesneau wrote of "the most attractive originality" and praised the artists' attempt to capture "the shimmering of light." More importantly, the exhibition established the Impressionists as a coherent movement with a distinct aesthetic philosophy.

The public reaction revealed the radical nature of what the Impressionists were attempting. Viewers accustomed to smooth finishes and clear narratives were confronted with paintings that seemed unfinished, subjects that appeared trivial, and colors that violated every rule of academic harmony. Many visitors laughed openly at the paintings, while others were genuinely puzzled, unable to understand what the artists were trying to achieve.