Meta-Impressionism / other exhibitions
La Vie Moderne
+L’Événement +Le Gaulois +La Revue Indépendante +La Revue Blanche
exhibitions at editorial offices
1879 – 1900
Introduction:
Apart from the Salon and their own ‘impressionist’ expositions, the exhibitions at La Vie Moderne (and other editorial offices) were a way to promote oneself as an artist and to sell art-works. La Vie Moderne was an illustrated weekly magazine (Journal Illustré hebdomadaire) that was established 1879/04/10. Georges Charpentier (1846-1905) was the publisher. He also was an art-collector supporting the Impressionists. The director was Émile Bergerat (1879-1928). Armand Silvestre and Edmond Renoir led the art section which was quite extended. There was a gallery at the editorial offices where monthly (small) exhibitions were held, organised by Edmond Renoir, who was the editor of La Vie Moderne in 1884 +85 (R31). On these exhibitions at 7, boulevard des Italiens in Paris, this page will focus.
There were also other publishing houses that held (small) exhibitions at their editorial offices, like L’Événement, Le Gaulois and La Revue Indépendante.+ La Revue Blanche. You will find this info lower at this page. Most of these exhibitions were held between 1879-88.
In general one can say that these exhibitions were quite small. Remarkable is that apart from oil paintings often pastels, drawings and even painted ostrich eggs were exhibited. The success of these exhibitions will have been alternating, anyway Monet had no success in June 1880.
1879 (or 1880), ? 2nd exhibition, Giuseppe de Nittis:
Solo exhibition of Giuseppe de Nittis. It was a succesfull exhibition with daily 2 to 3.000 visitors; almost all the works were sold. One source mentions it the second exhibition (R3,p221). It was organised by Edmond Renoir. (R2,p427;R88I,p194;R1,p431;R8,p218;R3;aR2). Note: other sources mention this was organised in 1880 (R89,p96).
1879:
first solo-exhibition of Lepic (R3); some mention he exhibited 35 works (R88;iR4) others about 100 (iR3)
1879/07/05:
Exhibition of impressionist works. There were 2000 visitors a day (R5,p113).
1879/06/19 – 07/03, ‘Cinquième exposition de la Vie moderne, P.-A. Renoir’:
Solo exhibition Renoir with mostly pastels (R30; R31,p315; R3,p221)
Edmond Renoir wrote a review in the weekly La Vie Moderne (1879/06/19,p.174/5; iR437;iR40)
Probably a painting from the Art Institute of Chicago was exhibited (M20).
1880:
There was an exhibition of fans by Henri Guérard (1846-97), see invitation.
1880/03/03:
Exhibition of painted ostrich eggs by Manet, Pissarro, Renoir and others (R5,p116).
1880/04/08 – 30, recent works of M. Manet:
Exhibition of 10 oil paintings and 15 pastels of Manet (R213,p245=no193;iR6;R5,p116;R39,p298;R3,p221)
1880/06, Monet:
Solo exhibition with 16 (?) works of Monet. He sold nothing.
Note: La Vie Moderne weekly (probably) didn’t pay attention to this exposition (iR40;iR437).
The next works were exhibited:
no.1 = CR568; no.2 =? CR546; no.3 =? CR520; no.4 = CR582; no.5 = CR535 or 595; no.6 = CR469; no.7 = CR555; no.8 = CR585; no.9 = ??; no.10 = ??; no.11 = ??; no.12 =? CR551; no.13 = CR590; no.14 = CR553; no.15 = CR94; no.16 = CR129 or 130 (R5,p117;R22IV,p1016;R3,p221)
1881 (January or Spring), Sisley:
Solo exhibition of Sisley with 14 paintings (R53,p141;R3,p221). Sources mention various dates: in January (R5,p122) early that year (R166,p268) in the Spring (R166,p295). Already 1879/06/12 Renoir suggested Charpentier to organise an exhibition with 40 paintings by Sisley (R5,p113).
Brame & Lorenceau give (almost) no suggestions on the works exhibited at La Vie Moderne; the exhibition isn’t even noted in the overview (R396,p528).
1881/04/? – 05/?, Redon:
In April and May 1881 there were 12 charcoal drawings of Redon exhibited. (aR6=iR189=R182IV,p329).
1881:
another solo exhibition of Lepic at with 100 works (iR4)
1885/01/22:
Posthumous solo exhibition of Eva Gonzales with 58 art-works, including 21 pastels (R5,p142;R31,p302)
L’Événement:
L’Événement was a newspaper with political left sympathies (R5,p113). It was founded in 1848. In 1866 Zola wrote reviews on books and the Salon. The blooming time was from 1872-96 under the direction of Edmond Magnier. (R3,p660).
L’Événement, 1879/07/27:
Opening exhibition of paintings by Monet, Pissarro and Sisley (R5,p113).
L’Événement, 1879/09/21:
There was a “Salon des dépêches du journal l’Événement” held in September, so an exhibition in a dispatch room of the newspaper L’Événement. Durand-Ruel lent 4 paintings of Pissarro, including CCP269, maybe CCP176, a ‘nature morte’ and an unidentified picture (R116I,p362).
Le Gaulois:
Le Gaulois 1881 (=LG-1881):
Durand-Ruel entrusted 18 paintings of Alfred Sisley tot the newspaper Le Gaulois (R166,p268).
Le Gaulois 1882/02 (=LG-1882):
There was an exhibition of charcoal drawings and engravings of Redon at the premises of Le Gaulois (=LG-1882; R182IV,p329+330)
La Revue Indépendante:
At the editorial offices of this Magazine some exhibitions (of Impressionists) organised at, 11 Chaussée d’Antin, Paris by Edouard Dujardin. It also was a meeting place for several artists. (R3,p692;R207,p41+43)
La Revue Indépendante, 1887/12:
Works of Lucien Pissarro were exhibited (R5,p157).
La Revue Indépendante, 1888/01/? – 02/?:
Exhibition with works of Seurat, Signac and others (=RI1888). The exhibition was directed by Fénéon.
(R40,p93;R106,p419;R183,p281).
La Revue Indépendante, 1888/05/01:
Solo exhibition with works of Guillaumin (R5,p162).
La Revue Blanche:
Magazine founded in 1889 by Paul Leclercq and Auguste Jeune-homme. In 1891 take-over by the brothers Natanson. The magazine wrote about avant-gardistic literature and art, namely on Impressionism. There were exhibitions organised in the editorial offices. The magazine stopped appearing in 1903. (R3,p692)
1892:
There had been a retrospective of Seurat: Exposition Posthume Seurat (R183,p281).
1900/03/19 – /04/05:
There had been a retrospective of Seurat (R183,p281).
Sources:
I couldn’t find any catalogue, so I only have indirect information. My main sources are the Catalogues Raisonnée of Monnet (R22), Pissarro (R116), Redon (R182IV,p329+330), Seurat (R183), Signac (R106), Sisley (R396). And also the catalogues on Renoir (R31), and Sisley (R166). Other sources are Walther (2013=R3,p220+702); Denvir (1993=R5,p112);. For other general references (=R) see. WikiPedia.fr (iR4). For other references to internet sites (=iR) see.
Gallica.bnf renders an overview of the editions of La Vie Moderne published per year from 1879-1917, rendering 1271 editions (iR40); you are redirected to RetroNews (iR437).
Recommanded citation: “Meta-Impressionism / other exhibitions: La Vie Moderne; exhibitions at editorial offices; 1879-1900. Last modified 2025/03/30. https://www.impressionism.nl/la-vie-moderne/”
Note: additional info and pictures will follow.
Please be reluctant when you quote from this webpage, which is under construction.
The information is incomplete and maybe partly incorrect.