Britannica Sources used in this answer

How did critics and the public react to Camille Pissarro’s paintings at the first Impressionist exhibition?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Camille Pissarro: Self-Portrait — Camille Pissarro *Self-Portrait*, oil on canvas by Camille Pissarro, 1873; in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

The first Impressionist exhibition, held in 1874, was a critical and financial failure for Camille Pissarro and his colleagues.12

While many reviewers acknowledged the artists' attempt to break away from the traditional Salon, the public and critical reception of the work itself was largely negative. Critics were often hostile, frequently accusing the artists of failing to study their craft. Notably, the critic Louis Leroy used the term "impression"—derived from Claude Monet’s painting Impression, Sunrise—as a derisive label for the group, a name that was subsequently adopted by the press and later by art historians.12

Pissarro expressed deep disappointment regarding the response, noting that critics sought to "destroy" the group. Despite this, he remained committed to the path of independent exhibitions, viewing them as the necessary future for their artistic movement.1