0:00:04 > 0:00:07In this series, we're going to be looking
0:00:07 > 0:00:12at some of the greatest art ever painted and the greatest painters.
0:00:12 > 0:00:18Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21The story of Impressionism is their story.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26'It's a story of rebellion and courage.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32'Monet painted some of art's bravest pictures.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35'Renoir, some of the liveliest.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41'Degas unleashed the ballet.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47'Seurat unleashed the dot.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53'Van Gogh, well, he unleashed colour.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57'I think it's the most exciting mutiny in art.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03'The days when everything changed.'
0:01:13 > 0:01:16# And it hardly looked like a novel at all
0:01:16 > 0:01:18# And the city treats me It treats me to you
0:01:18 > 0:01:21# And a cup of coffee for you
0:01:21 > 0:01:23# I should learn its language And speak it to you
0:01:23 > 0:01:26# And 70 million should be in the know
0:01:26 > 0:01:28# And 70 million don't go out at all
0:01:28 > 0:01:31# And 70 million wouldn't walk this street
0:01:31 > 0:01:34# And 70 million would run to a hole
0:01:34 > 0:01:36# And 70 million would be wrong, wrong, wrong
0:01:36 > 0:01:39# And 70 million never see at all
0:01:39 > 0:01:43# And 70 million haven't tasted snow. #
0:01:52 > 0:01:55- Morning, Tom.- Good morning, sir.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58- Good morning, Dick. - Good morning, sir.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00- Good morning, Harry. - Good morning, sir.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11This is the room that Monet,
0:02:11 > 0:02:13the most famous of the Impressionists,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16actually used to stay in when he came to London.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20He used to paint the Thames
0:02:20 > 0:02:23from this very window.
0:02:23 > 0:02:28In those days, of course, Monet wasn't as famous as he is today.
0:02:28 > 0:02:33These days, Monet and the Impressionists are everywhere.
0:02:33 > 0:02:38Terribly popular, terribly familiar, terribly commercialised.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50I have been Impressionist shopping and look what I've got.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54Impressionist umbrellas, Impressionist pen,
0:02:54 > 0:02:59Impressionist bag, Impressionist jigsaw,
0:02:59 > 0:03:03this fine Impressionist shirt
0:03:03 > 0:03:07and, above all, Impressionist chocolate.
0:03:07 > 0:03:12Boxes and boxes of chocolates.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18'When you're looking for art to put on a chocolate box,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21'you turn to the Impressionists, don't you?
0:03:21 > 0:03:26'Because these days their art seems so sweet and pleasant.'
0:03:29 > 0:03:33But what if the Impressionism never was this charming,
0:03:33 > 0:03:36sugary art movement we like to imagine?
0:03:36 > 0:03:39What if the real story of Impressionism
0:03:39 > 0:03:43was the story of a revolution, an overthrow,
0:03:43 > 0:03:47artistically dangerous and hardcore?
0:03:47 > 0:03:52What if the art of the Impressionists belongs not on a box of chocolates...
0:03:54 > 0:03:57..but on a case of dynamite?
0:04:05 > 0:04:09'The Impressionists never really had a plan.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11'That wasn't how it happened.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15'History threw them together to change art.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18'Some contributed more than others
0:04:18 > 0:04:21'and they're the ones we need to follow.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25'If their story began anywhere, it was here,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28'St Thomas, in the Virgin Islands,
0:04:28 > 0:04:32'where the painter Camille Pissarro was born
0:04:32 > 0:04:34'on July 10th, 1830.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38'Pissarro isn't the best loved of the Impressionists.'
0:04:38 > 0:04:41He's not the best known or the most popular.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45Monet is more famous than him, and so is Renoir,
0:04:45 > 0:04:50but none of them could've got together and did what they did without him.
0:04:50 > 0:04:56Pissarro was the glue that held Impressionism together.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02'The Impressionists had eight exhibitions, and that's it.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05'Eight shows that changed art.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09'And the only artist who appeared in all of them was Pissarro.'
0:05:13 > 0:05:17'The Pissarro family ran a hardware store in the High Street,
0:05:17 > 0:05:22'supplying useful stuff for the boats coming in and out of here.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27'As far as art is concerned, however,
0:05:27 > 0:05:31'the most interesting thing about them is that they were Jewish.'
0:05:39 > 0:05:43If I were to ask you to name me a great Jewish artist before Pissarro,
0:05:43 > 0:05:46you couldn't, because there weren't any.
0:05:46 > 0:05:52Plenty after him, of course. Rothko, Modigliani, Soutine, but none before.
0:05:53 > 0:05:58'Because the Jewish religion forbids the making of art.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02"You shall not make for yourself any likeness
0:06:02 > 0:06:06"of what is in the heavens above or on the earth below,"
0:06:06 > 0:06:09'says the second commandment firmly.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14'That's why there are no paintings or sculptures in synagogues.'
0:06:17 > 0:06:23Pissarro's family were orthodox enough to follow most of the observances of their religion,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27but they also had reason to challenge it and turn against it.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32'Pissarro's father, Frederick Pissarro,
0:06:32 > 0:06:38'had been sent to St Thomas to take over his uncle's business when the uncle died.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43'To everyone's horror, he quickly started a relationship'
0:06:43 > 0:06:46with his uncle's widow, Rachel Pissarro.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49And even though she already had four children,
0:06:49 > 0:06:54they got together and had four more, including Camille Pissarro.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01'The synagogue disapproved - how could it not?
0:07:01 > 0:07:05'Nephews shouldn't father their auntie's children.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08'The marriage was never accepted,
0:07:08 > 0:07:12'and a crack appeared in the ancient relationship
0:07:12 > 0:07:15'between the Pissarros and their faith.'
0:07:20 > 0:07:25Whether he was supposed to or not, Pissarro drew all the time.
0:07:25 > 0:07:26He was always at it.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30'Down on the docks, watching the fishermen.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34'Out in the fields with the working women.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40'It seems so modest, this Impressionism-to-be,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43'so sensitive, so quiet.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47'But don't let this quietude fool you.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50'Powerful sins are being committed here.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54'A Jewish boy is breaking an ancient taboo.'
0:07:57 > 0:07:59Not just any Jewish boy, either,
0:07:59 > 0:08:04but a Jewish boy stuck 4,500 miles away from Paris,
0:08:04 > 0:08:06in the Virgin Islands,
0:08:06 > 0:08:11just about as far away from the story of art as you can get.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16'If Pissarro had been alive in any other era,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19'there would've been no chance of him becoming a painter.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22'Not only was it a religious no-no,
0:08:22 > 0:08:27'but the practical difficulties were immense.'
0:08:27 > 0:08:31Where around here would he have got materials he needed
0:08:31 > 0:08:33to become an artist?
0:08:33 > 0:08:37In those days, painters needed so much stuff
0:08:37 > 0:08:41and the colours they used were so complicated to prepare.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46This is lapis lazuli, semi-precious stone.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50Incredibly expensive, it comes from Afghanistan,
0:08:50 > 0:08:53but the best blues were made from this.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57First, though, you needed to crack it
0:08:57 > 0:09:01and crunch it and grind it and turn it into paint.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08And when all the grinding and oiling was done,
0:09:08 > 0:09:12how do you actually carry around this paint that you've made?
0:09:12 > 0:09:19In those days, you shovelled it into pigs' bladders.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Yes, pigs' bladders.
0:09:24 > 0:09:26'So at the beginning of the 19th century,'
0:09:26 > 0:09:30painters needed all this to make art.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34But then, in 1841 in England,
0:09:34 > 0:09:38an American called John G Rand,
0:09:38 > 0:09:41working for good old Winsor & Newton...
0:09:43 > 0:09:45..invented something remarkable,
0:09:45 > 0:09:49something brilliant and inspired.
0:09:49 > 0:09:50Rand...
0:09:52 > 0:09:55..came up with this little beauty here.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57The paint tube.
0:09:59 > 0:10:05The impact of the paint tube on art can't be overestimated.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08It changed everything.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11This freed art.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14It freed Pissarro and made Impressionism possible.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19The new paint tubes were spectacularly portable,
0:10:19 > 0:10:22so easy to carry wherever you went.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27Squeezed quickly out of its quick new tube,
0:10:27 > 0:10:31the new paint could capture quick new movement.
0:10:32 > 0:10:39All sorts of elusive light effects were now easier to record and enjoy.
0:10:39 > 0:10:45It had a liberating effect too and seemed to free the spirit,
0:10:45 > 0:10:48as it definitely freed Pissarro's.
0:10:50 > 0:10:52None of this had happened yet, of course.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56All of it was now possible.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02First, though, Pissarro had to get out of the Virgin Islands
0:11:02 > 0:11:09and into Paris where the quick new paint was particularly useful.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15But when he finally got here in 1855,
0:11:15 > 0:11:21Pissarro found a city fast forwarding crazily into the future.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26What was happening to Paris was scary.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30The city was in the middle of a huge transformation.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32Everything was changing.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36The old Paris was being knocked down
0:11:36 > 0:11:39and a new one was being rushed up in its place.
0:11:40 > 0:11:46Pretty much all of the Paris that we love today, the boulevards,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49the parks, the big vistas,
0:11:49 > 0:11:52all that was created now.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59And it was happening at breakneck speed.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02Paris was now moving to a new rhythm.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06And that rhythm got into its art.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09It had to, didn't it?
0:12:12 > 0:12:16Renoir, the second of the great pioneering Impressionists,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19actually grew up next to the Louvre
0:12:19 > 0:12:22on what is now the famous Rue de Rivoli.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27This is it today.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31One of the poshest and most fashionable addresses in Paris.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35But when it Renoir grew up here, the Rue de Rivoli didn't even exist
0:12:35 > 0:12:39and this bit of Paris didn't look anything like this.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43It was more like this.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48A wobbly medieval ghost ride of spooky streets and twisted alleys.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55Infested with rats, sewage slopping in the streets,
0:12:55 > 0:12:59the old Paris had barely changed since the Middle Ages.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05It was a superb home for the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07But not for an Impressionist.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14So why the big rebuild?
0:13:14 > 0:13:18Why start Paris from scratch?
0:13:21 > 0:13:26Because France had a new emperor, Napoleon III,
0:13:26 > 0:13:30nephew of the first Napoleon.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33And when a Napoleons take over, they change things.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42For the citizens of Paris, turfed out, moved on,
0:13:42 > 0:13:44these were terrible times.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47An era of disruption.
0:13:47 > 0:13:52But for the Impressionists, the conditions were perfect.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55A city was changing beyond recognition.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59So its art needed to change as well.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08Renoir's father was a tailor
0:14:08 > 0:14:13and apparently little Renoir learned to draw by using his father's chalks on the floor.
0:14:13 > 0:14:18You know, those tailor's chalks they used to mark out their designs.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22But the most interesting part of his education came in his teens
0:14:22 > 0:14:27when he started to work for a posh manufacturer of luxury porcelain,
0:14:27 > 0:14:32churning out of vases and teacups and plates.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38Napoleon and his lackeys liked eating, drinking
0:14:38 > 0:14:41and commemorating their achievements,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44so they needed lots of posh plates to dine on.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51Renoir was 14 when he was sent to work at Levy & Sons
0:14:51 > 0:14:54as an apprentice porcelain painter.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00Renoir was so good, so quick, at painting flowers on plates,
0:15:00 > 0:15:04that he soon made enough money to buy his family a house.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08And it obviously influenced him, too.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10Look at the way people paint these plates.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14The tiny brushes,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17dabbing on pretty little effects, so decorative,
0:15:17 > 0:15:19so luminous,
0:15:19 > 0:15:21so Renoir.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30- TRANSLATION:- What is the difference between painting porcelain
0:15:30 > 0:15:32and painting pictures?
0:15:33 > 0:15:38TRANSLATION: With porcelain painting the painter has to work horizontally,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41with the elbow locked and the hand locked so they don't shake.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45We work on things that are very fine and delicate,
0:15:45 > 0:15:48and you have to learn to control your movement
0:15:48 > 0:15:50so that it is only the wrist that moves.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56The colours are very decorative, like this blue.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58You don't find THAT in paintings.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02This blue is cobalt blue.
0:16:02 > 0:16:07It has been used since antiquity by the Chinese.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11The speciality at Sevres is to apply it in many layers
0:16:11 > 0:16:17to create a depth of colour that isn't found anywhere else.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19C'est vraiment magnifique.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24The mark of Sevres is cobalt blue.
0:16:29 > 0:16:31If we jump ahead a few short years
0:16:31 > 0:16:34and look at what Renoir went on to paint
0:16:34 > 0:16:36when he became an Impressionist,
0:16:36 > 0:16:39we can surely recognise the ceramic origins
0:16:39 > 0:16:44of his feathery, flickery, decadent touch.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51Painting pots made Renoir different from everyone around him.
0:17:25 > 0:17:30These really were crazy times.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33Here's an amazing statistic.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37In 1850, there were a million people in Paris.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41By the 1870s, there were two million!
0:17:41 > 0:17:46Paris doubled in size in a couple of decades.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50And these mad decades are exactly the decades
0:17:50 > 0:17:53in which Impressionism was born.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59The new Paris was packed with temptations.
0:17:59 > 0:18:04One third of all the babies born here in Impressionist times
0:18:04 > 0:18:06was illegitimate.
0:18:07 > 0:18:13Poor old Pissarro, thrown into the deep end of this cauldron of change,
0:18:13 > 0:18:15couldn't have known what had hit him.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20He was just too sensitive, and well brought up,
0:18:20 > 0:18:22for what was going on here.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26Here's this small-town Jewish boy from the West Indies
0:18:26 > 0:18:29suddenly finding himself in the wildest
0:18:29 > 0:18:33and most sinful city on God's earth.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39Do you know what a lorette is?
0:18:39 > 0:18:41It's a French word.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45A piece of 19th century Parisian slang,
0:18:45 > 0:18:47which means a pretty girl.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49A girl with loose morals.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56You find them all over Impressionist pictures.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58Smoking, drinking,
0:18:58 > 0:19:02giggling, giving you the eye.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08They're the new woman, the woman of today,
0:19:08 > 0:19:11enjoying freedoms they'd never had before.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19Lorettes are the kinds of girls respectable men stay away from.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23And they are called lorettes because most of them lived around here,
0:19:23 > 0:19:25la Rue Notre-Dame de Lorette.
0:19:25 > 0:19:26And so too,
0:19:26 > 0:19:29at number 49, did Pissarro.
0:19:32 > 0:19:37Pissarro's mother came to Paris too to keep an eye on him.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41So did his stepsister, Emma, and her five children.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46There was a cook as well, a maid,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50and a black slave brought back from Saint Thomas.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54So that's five women, five children, plus Pissarro.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56All crammed into there.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01Small wonder his earliest Paris paintings
0:20:01 > 0:20:04try so hard to get away from it all.
0:20:06 > 0:20:11These quiet landscapes, painted on day trips out of the city,
0:20:11 > 0:20:16are the works of a man from the Tropics, who is in love with light.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19In all its varieties.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31On that corner there, where the Gothic building is,
0:20:31 > 0:20:35there used to be a beaten-up painting studio.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37The Academie Suisse.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43It was what they called a free studio,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46meaning nobody actually taught you anything in there.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50You decided for yourself what you wanted to paint.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56Pissarro, who had strong anarchist tendencies from the start,
0:20:56 > 0:21:00enrolled at the Academie Suisse as soon as he got to Paris.
0:21:02 > 0:21:07One day a new student turned up at the studio,
0:21:07 > 0:21:10a handsome young chap, a bit of a dandy,
0:21:10 > 0:21:12who cut quite a dash
0:21:12 > 0:21:14with his lacy cuffs
0:21:14 > 0:21:17and his Antonio Banderas hair.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23Pissarro got on very well with him.
0:21:23 > 0:21:28This new chap also enjoyed painting outdoors.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32The lorettes, they liked him too,
0:21:32 > 0:21:34which they made pretty clear.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39"I only sleep with maids and duchesses,"
0:21:39 > 0:21:41replied this new chap haughtily.
0:21:41 > 0:21:46"Preferably duchesses' maids."
0:21:46 > 0:21:48That was Monet.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57Claude Oscar Monet was from Le Havre,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00a busy industrial port on the Normandy coast,
0:22:00 > 0:22:05whose watery textures he was instinctively quick at capturing.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13Monet was so talented
0:22:13 > 0:22:16and the first unmistakable signs of this talent
0:22:16 > 0:22:19appeared when he was 14 or 15,
0:22:19 > 0:22:23and began drawing cartoons and caricatures
0:22:23 > 0:22:27of Le Havre's most prominent citizens.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34The prominent citizens loved these jokey portraits of themselves.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38Monet was soon churning them out
0:22:38 > 0:22:41and making so much money from his comic drawings
0:22:41 > 0:22:45that he started to dream of becoming a proper artist.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48A serious landscape painter,
0:22:48 > 0:22:51quick enough and skilled enough to capture
0:22:51 > 0:22:55the shimmering, changeable sights that surrounded him.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03First, though, there were hoops to jump through.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05Big ones.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09To make it in the Parisian art world, you needed to show your work
0:23:09 > 0:23:12at the infamous Paris Salon,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15the most prestigious art exhibition in the world,
0:23:15 > 0:23:21where every year, some of the world's most pompous pictures
0:23:21 > 0:23:24were proudly selected and displayed.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30This is the enemy.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34This is what Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, all of them,
0:23:34 > 0:23:36were up against,
0:23:36 > 0:23:38the official art of the era.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42The surface of a typical Salon picture
0:23:42 > 0:23:47is as smooth and shiny as the paintwork on a new car.
0:23:47 > 0:23:52Glistening, perfect, that's how they wanted it.
0:23:52 > 0:23:57To make it in the Paris art world, this is the game you had to play.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01Everything was controlled from here.
0:24:01 > 0:24:08The Institute de France, created by a gang of Freemasons in 1795.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12In here is the Academie de peinture et de sculpture.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18The Academie appointed the teachers who taught here
0:24:18 > 0:24:19at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24To get into the Ecole des Beaux-Arts,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26you needed first to pass some exams.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30Judged, of course, by the Academicians.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35The Academicians also made sure your work was accepted
0:24:35 > 0:24:37for the Paris Salon,
0:24:37 > 0:24:39because they were the jury for it.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42If you did well at the Salon,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46the state, advised by the Academicians, naturally,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49gave you a prestigious commission.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51Like these ones here at the Pantheon.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58After a few prestigious state commissions,
0:24:58 > 0:25:02you too could now become an Academician
0:25:02 > 0:25:05and teach at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
0:25:05 > 0:25:08where you passed on your methods to your students
0:25:08 > 0:25:11and the whole rotten process could begin again.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19So that is what the Impressionists were up against.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22That is what they had to get away from.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26That is why they happened.
0:25:30 > 0:25:35Churning out Venuses was not the career that Monet wanted.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40His guilty pleasure was the real world.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46This is the biggest Monet exhibition of recent years.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56It's at the Grand Palais in Paris,
0:25:56 > 0:26:01a magnificent display of everything that Monet achieved.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19There's the beaches near Le Havre where he grow up.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32And here are the forests
0:26:32 > 0:26:36he sneaked off to paint with Pissarro.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46And then, at the other end of his life,
0:26:46 > 0:26:50look at these outrageously brave and inventive water lilies.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54I mean, how adventurous is that?
0:27:01 > 0:27:03All that happens later, of course.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06But I've brought you here now because I wanted to give you
0:27:06 > 0:27:09an important tip for looking at Impressionist art.
0:27:09 > 0:27:14If ever an Impressionist picture begins to look predictable or boring,
0:27:14 > 0:27:15like you've seen it before,
0:27:15 > 0:27:18another seascape, another riverside view,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22what you need to do is get closer.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25Shuffle right up to it, as close as you can.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28If you are in a museum, get as close as they'll let you.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34And really look at what's happening in an Impressionist picture.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40Notice the brushstrokes, look how brave they are,
0:27:40 > 0:27:42how cocky and adventurous.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48A new language is being invented to convey new sensations.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52The closer you get to an Impressionist picture,
0:27:52 > 0:27:57the easier it is to feel the spirit of the revolution.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04To beat the Salon system,
0:28:04 > 0:28:07various private art schools had opened up in Paris.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14This one here, down this secret alley...
0:28:16 > 0:28:20..was run by an old boy called Charles Gleyre.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24Gleyre had been a Salon painter in the past,
0:28:24 > 0:28:27specialising in doomy mythologies.
0:28:29 > 0:28:30But he was of a liberal bent,
0:28:30 > 0:28:36so the students he had were more progressive than most.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45Renoir was here already, and known to be something of a slacker.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48"Young man," said Gleyre to him one day,
0:28:48 > 0:28:51"you're very talented, very gifted,
0:28:51 > 0:28:56"but it looks as if you took up painting to amuse yourself."
0:28:57 > 0:28:59So Gleyre was an insightful old bird.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09Renoir had a nose for pleasure.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11And it led him to the Seine,
0:29:11 > 0:29:15which he liked to explore with his new painting buddy,
0:29:15 > 0:29:17Monet.
0:29:20 > 0:29:25Monet and Renoir would spend their summers sniffing out modern places by the river,
0:29:25 > 0:29:28where modern people were having fun in modern ways.
0:29:30 > 0:29:35That's how they found a notorious riverside hot spot
0:29:35 > 0:29:39called La Grenouillere, which means "the frog pond".
0:29:42 > 0:29:47La Grenouillere was a floating bar or on the river
0:29:47 > 0:29:53where people came on Sundays for a bit of swimming and a lot of a flirting.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01So infamous La Grenouillere that even the Emperor and his wife
0:30:01 > 0:30:07turned up here in 1869 to see for themselves if all the stories were true.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10In that same summer, 1869,
0:30:10 > 0:30:15Monet and Renoir turned up as well to change the story of art.
0:30:16 > 0:30:21The two painting buddies, that's Monet on the right,
0:30:21 > 0:30:23Renoir or on the left,
0:30:23 > 0:30:28set out to capture the interaction of people and light and water.
0:30:31 > 0:30:37To do that, Monet and Renoir needed this little beauty here.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39It doesn't look like much,
0:30:39 > 0:30:44but this shiny piece of metal made Impressionism possible.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49It's called a ferrule.
0:30:49 > 0:30:54It is a tiny tin sheath that appeared on the ends of paintbrushes
0:30:54 > 0:30:56halfway through the 19th century.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59Before these metal ferrules were invented,
0:30:59 > 0:31:02all brushes were basically round.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07The clusters of hairs would be tied to the shaft
0:31:07 > 0:31:09with string or binding.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12Being able to use a flat brush like that
0:31:12 > 0:31:18instead of a round brush like that, revolutionised art.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22It completely changed the story of painting.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29The brush strokes you can make with a flat brush
0:31:29 > 0:31:31are much more expressive.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35They're better for capturing the choppiness of the water,
0:31:35 > 0:31:38the ripples, the flicker of the light on the surface.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43And you can cover much more of the canvas quickly.
0:31:43 > 0:31:48If you're in a hurry to record an elusive effect before it disappears,
0:31:48 > 0:31:54as the Impressionists often were, what you need is one of these.
0:31:56 > 0:32:01The paintings they made here are the first raw attempts at Impressionism.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05Quick, fidgety, responsive.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09It's not just the look of La Grenouillere
0:32:09 > 0:32:13that's being captured here, but also its spirit.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18It's all changed now, the Seine was re routed
0:32:18 > 0:32:21and what was previously river, is now dry land.
0:32:23 > 0:32:28You can still see this little island that Renoir and Monet painted.
0:32:28 > 0:32:33It was called the Camembert because it was round and small.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38It's all gone now, thank God Monet and Renoir
0:32:38 > 0:32:42and their new types of brush came here
0:32:42 > 0:32:45and painted it before it disappeared.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53Before you can paint a riverside pleasure den,
0:32:53 > 0:32:56you need to get to it.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59That hadn't previously been easy.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02Particularly for those old-fashioned painters
0:33:02 > 0:33:06who still relied on old-fashioned painting equipment.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11This is a typical studio easel of the time.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14What most painters were using before the Impressionists.
0:33:14 > 0:33:19As you can see, it takes two big blokes to manoeuvre it in.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23Painting outdoors with this would have been impossible.
0:33:23 > 0:33:29What you need instead is one of these.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33The new, portable, fold away, easy to use
0:33:33 > 0:33:38travelling easel with built-in painting kit.
0:33:44 > 0:33:48With one of these, getting to La Grenouillere was a doddle.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56You just hopped on board one of these new-fangled iron horses
0:33:56 > 0:34:02that had recently appeared in France and you steamed there at speed.
0:34:16 > 0:34:21The various design subtleties in these new, portable easels
0:34:21 > 0:34:25made them the perfect tool for outdoor painting.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29So practical, so easy to use.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43The flat brushes, the ones with those new ferrules,
0:34:43 > 0:34:46they all went in there.
0:34:46 > 0:34:52Tubes of paint had replaced the big pigs bladders, they all go there.
0:34:52 > 0:34:56There's a handy, fold away palette on top.
0:34:56 > 0:35:00Just a few clicks of the box and you're a fully prepared,
0:35:00 > 0:35:06outdoor Impressionist, ready for any landscape the train can take you to.
0:35:18 > 0:35:23Sundays at La Grenouillere were exciting and fun.
0:35:23 > 0:35:29The train was always heaving with eager pleasure-seekers.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33Not all the crucial pioneering of the Impressionists
0:35:33 > 0:35:36was undertaken on Paris's doorstep.
0:35:36 > 0:35:41Sometimes, the iron horse needed to make a longer journey.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50Montpellier in the south of France.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54Classy, civilised, conservative,
0:35:54 > 0:35:56and a long way from Paris.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00Montpellier is famous for its ancient university,
0:36:00 > 0:36:04and for these sun-drenched lovelies.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07Southern grapes grown by the barrel-load
0:36:07 > 0:36:11for producing the cheap and cheerful local wine.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32Among Montpellier's richest wine families there were the Bazilles.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35Who ran this posh establishment, the Domaine de Meric.
0:36:38 > 0:36:43The Bazilles had a son, Frederic Bazille who was exceptionally tall,
0:36:43 > 0:36:47exceptionally shy and exceptionally talented.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52So talented, that he might have become the greatest
0:36:52 > 0:36:57of all the Impressionists if the Germans hadn't killed him first.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03Bazille is the fourth of the key Impressionist Musketeers.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and Bazille.
0:37:06 > 0:37:11He died in 1870 in the Franco-Prussian war.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14Too young to see through the Impressionist revolution,
0:37:14 > 0:37:18but he was there at the beginning and he was crucial.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24The Bazilles wanted Frederic to become a doctor.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27But he failed all the exams and ended up instead
0:37:27 > 0:37:31with Monet and Renoir at the Academy Gleyre.
0:37:34 > 0:37:38His parents were generous enough to give him a full allowance
0:37:38 > 0:37:42which his fellow students were happy to help him spend.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46But what is fascinating about Bazille, what makes him stand out,
0:37:46 > 0:37:49apart from the fact he was nearly seven foot tall,
0:37:49 > 0:37:54his most interesting pictures weren't printed in Paris
0:37:54 > 0:37:58with Monet and Renoir around, but here in Montpellier,
0:37:58 > 0:38:03outdoors in this hot, dry luminous landscape.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09This is his masterpiece.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13A haunting picture showing the whole of his family arranged
0:38:13 > 0:38:16on a terrace at the Domaine de Meric.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20Mum and dad, sisters, cousins and their beaus.
0:38:20 > 0:38:25With Bazille himself squashed uncomfortably into the corner.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30They're supposed to be looking relaxed and informal.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34They've all come together on a sunny Montpellier terrace
0:38:34 > 0:38:37for a quiet afternoon of family bonding.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41So why do they all look so stiff and anxious?
0:38:44 > 0:38:50Because Bazille is more interested in capturing the light of the south
0:38:50 > 0:38:52than in being nice to his family.
0:38:53 > 0:39:00Bazille and Monet were close. Bazille had money, Monet didn't.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03So, it was useful for Monet and Renoir
0:39:03 > 0:39:06to use Bazille's studio.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10And occasionally to move in there, rent free.
0:39:13 > 0:39:17One day, Bazille suggested they should form
0:39:17 > 0:39:20a group of artists with similar ideas.
0:39:20 > 0:39:24Monet agreed and then forgot about it for a while,
0:39:24 > 0:39:25as students do.
0:39:27 > 0:39:32It was also Bazille who suggested painting some life-size figures
0:39:32 > 0:39:36in the most difficult place there is for figure painting,
0:39:36 > 0:39:41outdoors, in the sunshine with the figures in front of you.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45Bazille himself never tried it,
0:39:45 > 0:39:50but Monet did, in fact, he decided to paint an outdoor scene
0:39:50 > 0:39:54in which the figures were double life-size.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57It was the height of a London bus.
0:39:57 > 0:39:59And most of the width of one, as well.
0:40:02 > 0:40:07In the past, pictures of this huge historic size had always shown us
0:40:07 > 0:40:16events of huge historic importance - wars, coronations, massacres.
0:40:16 > 0:40:21But all Monet shows us is a group of his friends on a picnic,
0:40:21 > 0:40:23having fun outdoors.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29Monet's mistress, Camille,
0:40:29 > 0:40:32posed for all these interestingly backlit women.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37Bazille is all the chaps in bowler hats.
0:40:38 > 0:40:43It was so expensive to paint that Monet ran out of money
0:40:43 > 0:40:46and couldn't pay his rent.
0:40:46 > 0:40:51The landlord kicked him out and kept the giant painting as security.
0:40:51 > 0:40:56When Monet finally got it back much of it had rotted away.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00He could only saved two big bits.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04Since the whopper hadn't worked out, the following summer,
0:41:04 > 0:41:09in 1866, Monet decided to have another go.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13Sensibly, the new picture was going to be much smaller,
0:41:13 > 0:41:16only around 8ft tall this time.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20But his chief ambition - to paint a scene of everyday life
0:41:20 > 0:41:24out in the open air, in the sunshine - that ambition remained.
0:41:27 > 0:41:32He painted some women in a garden, lounging around in the sunshine,
0:41:32 > 0:41:36wearing lovely dresses and not doing much.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41Painting outdoors is difficult for all sorts of reasons,
0:41:41 > 0:41:44particularly if you're painting a whopper.
0:41:44 > 0:41:48How, for instance, do you paint the top of a picture
0:41:48 > 0:41:50that's much bigger than you?
0:41:50 > 0:41:54Monet's solution was to dig a trench in the garden
0:41:54 > 0:41:57and to have the canvas lowered into it on pulleys.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04But the biggest challenge he set himself was to paint sunlight
0:42:04 > 0:42:07directly, exactly as it was.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11It's actually one of the hardest tasks in art -
0:42:11 > 0:42:15combining strong sunshine with strong shadows.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Have you watched one of those games of football on the TV
0:42:18 > 0:42:22when the sun's shining and throwing big black shadows on the pitch?
0:42:22 > 0:42:26The camera just can't handle it, the contrasts are too great.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30But the human eye can.
0:42:33 > 0:42:39No one in art had previously painted sunshine as bright as this.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45He nearly gets it right, but not quite.
0:42:45 > 0:42:50Some of the passages of painting and women in the garden are stunning.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53Look at the way he's captured the light on that white dress.
0:42:53 > 0:42:58But overall, there's a strange air of unreality to the picture.
0:43:00 > 0:43:05It's got a frozen quality, as if all these modern people have been
0:43:05 > 0:43:10preserved for posterity in a very sunny ice cube.
0:43:22 > 0:43:27Unreality was never an issue with Pissarro.
0:43:27 > 0:43:28He was too poor to be unreal.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36I know artists always go on about how tough things were for them
0:43:36 > 0:43:39in their youth, before they were discovered,
0:43:39 > 0:43:44but in Pissarro's case, the hardships were never exaggerated.
0:43:45 > 0:43:51He really was exceptionally poor and put-upon for most of his career.
0:43:55 > 0:43:59It made him extra sensitive to little things,
0:43:59 > 0:44:03to places the rest of us might walk past,
0:44:03 > 0:44:07to people the rest of us might ignore.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11Where the other painters in his gang were attracted to the countryside
0:44:11 > 0:44:15for the lunching and the boating, Pissarro avoided all that.
0:44:15 > 0:44:20His countryside is somewhere you grow things and work hard,
0:44:20 > 0:44:24connect to the earth and do your bit.
0:44:33 > 0:44:37So why was he so poor, so put-upon?
0:44:38 > 0:44:42I'm afraid it was that old devil love that brought him down.
0:44:42 > 0:44:48Pissarro's mistake was to fall in love with one of his mother's servants, the cook's assistant.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51Julie, she was called.
0:44:51 > 0:44:54This Julie turned out to be one of the great artist's wives -
0:44:54 > 0:44:58loyal, dogged, resourceful.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00But she wasn't Jewish.
0:45:00 > 0:45:05She was his mother's servant, a practising Christian,
0:45:05 > 0:45:08and pretty quickly she got pregnant by him,
0:45:08 > 0:45:12none of which went down well with the family.
0:45:15 > 0:45:21Pissarro's mother, who controlled the purse-strings, wrapped her fingers tightly around them
0:45:21 > 0:45:26and ensured that Pissarro, Julie and their quickly multiplying number of offspring
0:45:26 > 0:45:29would never be comfortable and often poor.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38They moved out here to Louveciennes on the outskirts of Paris,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41not because the river out here is especially pretty
0:45:41 > 0:45:45or any of the usual Impressionist reasons but because, in those days,
0:45:45 > 0:45:49the rents here were much lower than they were in the city.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04They rented the cheapest house they could get, and while Julie -
0:46:04 > 0:46:08who was born in the country and who was excellently practical
0:46:08 > 0:46:12and resourceful - grew what she could in the garden,
0:46:12 > 0:46:18Pissarro continued to paint his sensitive landscapes
0:46:18 > 0:46:20and set about fathering enough children
0:46:20 > 0:46:23to populate several families.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39I don't usually come south of the river in London -
0:46:39 > 0:46:41it's not my manor.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44But when you tread in the footsteps of the Impressionists
0:46:44 > 0:46:48you end up in some unlikely places.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00Welcome to Upper Norwood,
0:47:00 > 0:47:05where the suburbs of London turn into more suburbs.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09I could have put this sign up in Croydon or in Dulwich,
0:47:09 > 0:47:14or Sydenham because Pissarro painted in all of them.
0:47:17 > 0:47:24Amazingly, South London was a crucial location in the story of Impressionism.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28Important things happened here at a very important time.
0:47:34 > 0:47:40In 1870, France started a war with Prussia.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42Big mistake.
0:47:42 > 0:47:47The Prussians charged across Europe and quickly surrounded Paris.
0:47:47 > 0:47:52A few brave Frenchmen fought back, but most of them didn't.
0:47:52 > 0:47:57Monet and Pissarro, both of whom had children and mistresses to look after,
0:47:57 > 0:47:59fled here to London,
0:47:59 > 0:48:05where they soon settled into a modest but fruitful lifestyle.
0:48:09 > 0:48:15London inspired Monet to paint the Thames on a warm summer night
0:48:15 > 0:48:18with the Houses of Parliament looming in the distance,
0:48:18 > 0:48:21looking mysterious and misty.
0:48:21 > 0:48:26Pissarro, however, avoided the obvious landmarks
0:48:26 > 0:48:31and sniffed out a London that was quiet, modest, suburban,
0:48:31 > 0:48:35a London that struck a chord with him.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40Pissarro painted this view.
0:48:43 > 0:48:45This one, too.
0:48:49 > 0:48:51And this one.
0:48:55 > 0:49:00It isn't dramatic art but it is sensitive and responsive.
0:49:03 > 0:49:05These quiet English greys,
0:49:05 > 0:49:11the sooty air, the damp joylessness of living here.
0:49:11 > 0:49:16It takes great sensitivity to enjoy a place as ordinary as this,
0:49:16 > 0:49:20and great pictorial talent to paint it.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30Something else happened in London which, in the end,
0:49:30 > 0:49:35was absolutely crucial, because it was here in London that Monet
0:49:35 > 0:49:39and Pissarro discovered Turner.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47Britain's finest landscapist was to play a big role
0:49:47 > 0:49:49in the creation of Impressionism.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53It's an easy fact to prove.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56Here is a typical Turner.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59And here a typical Monet.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01Case closed.
0:50:03 > 0:50:06Weirdly though, for some complex French reason,
0:50:06 > 0:50:12Monet would later insist that Turner had no influence on him at all.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14"I never looked at Turner," he said.
0:50:16 > 0:50:17Even though the two of them
0:50:17 > 0:50:21traipsed keenly round the London galleries examining the art.
0:50:21 > 0:50:26And Pissarro's name was actually in the visitors' book
0:50:26 > 0:50:29at Dulwich Picture Gallery.
0:50:29 > 0:50:34Of course, Turner influenced and inspired the Impressionists.
0:50:34 > 0:50:36It could hardly be more obvious.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40And when the Franco-Prussian war was over,
0:50:40 > 0:50:44and Monet and Pissarro scuttled back to France.
0:50:44 > 0:50:49They took back with them Turner's glorious certainty
0:50:49 > 0:50:54that landscape was a route to the emotions.
0:50:54 > 0:50:56Whether it was noisy or it was subtle,
0:50:56 > 0:51:01it always spoke to the heart.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17Une baguette. Merci...
0:51:22 > 0:51:25You know what the French are like about bread,
0:51:25 > 0:51:28the entire country runs on baguettes.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31This crusty little beastie has played a key role
0:51:31 > 0:51:34in the creation of the French identity.
0:51:36 > 0:51:42Bread played a big role too in the story of the Impressionists.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46When Pissarro returned to France from England,
0:51:46 > 0:51:51he found the invading Prussians had turned his house into a stable
0:51:51 > 0:51:55and spread his pictures across the muddy ground,
0:51:55 > 0:51:59so their horses wouldn't get their hooves wet.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03Disillusioned, traumatised, Pissarro decided to move
0:52:03 > 0:52:09and to start again here in Pontoise in 1872.
0:52:09 > 0:52:13He began to think seriously as well about that idea
0:52:13 > 0:52:16that Bazille had had a few years earlier -
0:52:16 > 0:52:19to assemble a group of like-minded artists,
0:52:19 > 0:52:26an association of some sort, to work together and beat the system.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30Pissarro looked at various options
0:52:30 > 0:52:33before setting up his new organisation.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36In the end, the rules for the new group of painters
0:52:36 > 0:52:40were based on the Charter of the Bakers' Union here in Pontoise.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46Mind you, this wasn't any old Bakers' Union,
0:52:46 > 0:52:52this was the oldest Bakers' Union in the world.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54The Bakers of Pontoise
0:52:54 > 0:52:59were granted their charter by Louis VII as long ago as 1162.
0:53:00 > 0:53:06So they had a particularly long history of making trouble.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10Remember, bread in France is powerful stuff.
0:53:10 > 0:53:14The French Revolution was triggered by bread strikes,
0:53:14 > 0:53:16so was the Paris Commune of 1871,
0:53:16 > 0:53:19the world's first workers' takeover.
0:53:19 > 0:53:24So by using the Bakers' Union as the model for this new group of artists,
0:53:24 > 0:53:28Pissarro was hoping that they'd inherit
0:53:28 > 0:53:31some of the revolutionary fire of these dangerous bakers.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40By the winter of 1873, the plans were complete.
0:53:40 > 0:53:4715 artists would form a joint stock company, a co-operative of equals.
0:53:48 > 0:53:53Their plan was to operate entirely outside the salon system.
0:53:53 > 0:53:59No academies, no prizes, just the art itself.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06Degas, who we haven't talked about yet
0:54:06 > 0:54:09but who we're talking about a lot later in the series,
0:54:09 > 0:54:13wanted to call the group "La Capucine", The Nasturtium,
0:54:13 > 0:54:16after that bright red flower that Monet planted in his gardens.
0:54:16 > 0:54:20"We could put nasturtiums on the posters," he said.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22But he was overruled.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26Instead, the new gang lumbered itself with
0:54:26 > 0:54:29the long and unsnappy name of
0:54:29 > 0:54:36the Societe Anonyme Des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs et Graveurs,
0:54:36 > 0:54:40which doesn't trip off the tongue, does it?
0:54:40 > 0:54:42So they had the organisation, they had the name,
0:54:42 > 0:54:45but where were they going to show?
0:54:45 > 0:54:48Monet knew the photographer Nadar,
0:54:48 > 0:54:51the most fashionable photographer in Paris,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54who had recently moved out of his studio
0:54:54 > 0:54:57in the glamorous Boulevard des Capucines.
0:54:57 > 0:55:02So it was empty, and he offered it to Pissarro and his friends for free.
0:55:04 > 0:55:07So this is where they had their show,
0:55:07 > 0:55:12in Nadar's chic studio at 35 Boulevard des Capucines.
0:55:13 > 0:55:21It opened on April 15th, 1874, and changed art forever.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25What you're about to see is revolutionary, too.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28I've been trying to get in here for three decades.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31It might be the most famous art exhibition of all time,
0:55:31 > 0:55:35but these days, they prefer to keep the doors closed.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44Pissarro and Monet rounded up all their friends
0:55:44 > 0:55:47and persuaded them to join.
0:55:47 > 0:55:49They were a higgledy-piggledy bunch.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52The one thing that united everyone here
0:55:52 > 0:55:57was a shared hatred of the salon system.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00Although this was a photography studio, do you know,
0:56:00 > 0:56:04not a single picture has survived of the first Impressionist exhibition.
0:56:04 > 0:56:09All we know is that Nadar had painted the walls
0:56:09 > 0:56:11a tasteful blood red...
0:56:13 > 0:56:15..which has survived.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20And that Renoir, who did all the hanging, arranged all the pictures.
0:56:20 > 0:56:27There were 165 of them, by 30 artists, in two democratic rows,
0:56:27 > 0:56:31small ones at the bottom, big ones on top.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41Renoir showed seven pictures
0:56:41 > 0:56:45and found his Venus in a box at the theatre,
0:56:45 > 0:56:50with his brother, Edmond, at the back, getting an even better look.
0:56:53 > 0:56:55Pissarro had five pictures,
0:56:55 > 0:57:02all of them devoted in a quiet but revolutionary fashion
0:57:02 > 0:57:05to real places and real sunshine.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09Degas, meanwhile, painted the ballet.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12No one had ever done that before.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18There was a woman artist too - Berthe Morisot.
0:57:18 > 0:57:20Sensitive? Yes.
0:57:20 > 0:57:24Revolutionary? Very.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26How about this for a brush stroke?
0:57:28 > 0:57:33Monet showed four paintings, one of which was actually painted from up here,
0:57:33 > 0:57:36from Nadar's balcony.
0:57:37 > 0:57:42The shimmering view of the Boulevard des Capucines in action,
0:57:42 > 0:57:45teeming with modern life.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52But it was the darkest Monet in the show that had the biggest impact.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56It was painted in Le Havre, in the harbour,
0:57:56 > 0:57:59in misty and mysterious conditions.
0:58:01 > 0:58:05A glowing red sun hovering over a black sea,
0:58:05 > 0:58:11casting a mysterious orange reflection.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15Renoir's brother, Edmond, who was editing the catalogue,
0:58:15 > 0:58:18pushed Monet to come up with a catchy title for it.
0:58:18 > 0:58:23Monet casually suggested Impression Sunrise,
0:58:23 > 0:58:26and thought no more of it.
0:58:26 > 0:58:31But a waspish little art critic called Louis Leroy
0:58:31 > 0:58:36was much amused by this deliberately ambiguous title.
0:58:36 > 0:58:38In a nasty review of the show,
0:58:38 > 0:58:45Leroy giggled that this new gang of painters were just impressionists.
0:58:45 > 0:58:50He was trying to be sarcastic, but the insult stuck.
0:58:50 > 0:58:55From now on, Monet, Pissarro and the gang
0:58:55 > 0:58:59would always be known as the Impressionists.
0:59:02 > 0:59:05In the next film, the revolution continues,
0:59:05 > 0:59:08with some of the most famous outdoor art ever painted.
0:59:08 > 0:59:15And with me half killing myself trying to find out how it was done.
0:59:15 > 0:59:16Argh!
0:59:16 > 0:59:19So you think you know the Impressionists?
0:59:19 > 0:59:23Well, here's 100 Francs that says you don't.
0:59:36 > 0:59:39Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:39 > 0:59:42E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk