Why did Edgar Degas call the first Impressionist exhibition a salon of Realists?

Edgar Degas referred to the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874 as a "salon of Realists" because he and his fellow exhibitors were united by a shared commitment to engaging with the sights and subjects of the modern world, rather than adhering to the traditional, idealized themes favored by the official state-sponsored Salon.12

By this time, Degas had aligned himself with the principles of Realism, having developed close associations with Realist novelists and artists who sought to objectively record contemporary life. While the group later became known as the Impressionists—a term derived derisively from a critic's review of Claude Monet's work—the initial collective was composed of diverse artists who primarily aimed to establish an independent venue for their work, free from the restrictive jury system of the academic establishment. Degas’s choice of the term "Realists" reflected his belief in the importance of depicting the reality of everyday life, a goal he pursued through his own focus on topical scenes of Parisian society.13245