One art dealer brought impressionism to America. Now his great-great-granddaughter is bringing it to Geelong. The most ambitious exhibition in the Geelong Gallery’s history honours the movement’s early champion Paul Durand-Ruel and features works by Monet, Renoir and Pissarro.
In March 1886, the French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel set sail to New York with more than 300 paintings, among them 43 by Claude Monet and 35 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Back in Paris, the establishment was mocking the impressionists for their radical use of colour and bold, visible brushstrokes. Durand-Ruel – on the brink of financial ruin – was one of their few champions. Their last hope was to find new collectors abroad.
Against the odds, his bet paid off. In the US, the impressionists found their first receptive public, rescuing the artists from obscurity and poverty and turning impressionism into a global phenomenon that remains to this day. In a fitting tribute to Durand-Ruel’s global vision, more than 70 paintings that passed through the gallerist’s hands have now made another cross-continental journey – this time to a port city on Australia’s southern coast, where they are being exhibited at the Geelong Gallery, in Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel, art dealer among artists.
A Global Vision
It would have been “no surprise” to Durand-Ruel that these paintings have travelled to regional Australia, says Claire Durand-Ruel, the dealer’s great-great-granddaughter, who co-curated the exhibition with the art historian Marianne Mathieu, a global authority on impressionism. Claire studied archival records detailing the lengths her great-great-grandfather went to in the 19th century to ship paintings to America and into Russia.
“He wanted to go as far as he could, to send the works as far as he could, all of his life,” she says. “That was the policy of the Durand-Ruel Gallery. You cannot bring the people to your gallery, that’s difficult, so the works have to move to the people.”
The show is the most ambitious in the Geelong Gallery’s 130-year history. Produced in partnership with Art Exhibitions Australia and Mathieu’s agency ACPA – Advising Curating Producing Art, the exhibition features works by Monet, Renoir, Berthe Morisot and Camille Pissarro. Almost all are on loan from private collections, mostly from Europe, so are rarely publicly exhibited anywhere in the world.
Forgotten Masters
In dialogue with these giants of art history are pieces by a second wave of lesser-known impressionists also championed by Durand-Ruel – Albert André, Georges d’Espagnat, Gustave Loiseau, Maxime Maufra and Henry Moret. Mathieu thinks these painters have been neglected by art historians because their careers lacked the dramatic rupture from the establishment that defined those of their forerunners. “We want to put this generation at the level they deserve,” she says.
Claire believes visitors to the exhibition will instinctively understand why her ancestor backed these painters with the same conviction as the impressionist pioneers. She gestures to a large oil-on-canvas by André depicting a nude woman, flanked by peacocks, their iridescent feathers swirling around her. “It is incredibly beautiful. That’s what [Durand-Ruel] saw,” she says. “These works deserve to be exhibited now because of both the quality of the art and the opportunity to educate people about other artists. He believed in them totally.”
A Tribute to the Dealer
As well as shining a light on a group of underappreciated artists, the show is also a homage to the pioneering art dealer and collector. At times, Durand-Ruel single-handedly kept artists employed by buying their paintings when no one else would. In the process, he nearly bankrupted himself twice. Monet is recorded as saying: “Without Durand, we would have died of hunger, all of us impressionists. We owe him everything.” Monet had an especially great debt of gratitude to Durand-Ruel: it was with a loan from the dealer that he bought his property at Giverny, where he lived for more than 40 years, painting water lilies and other scenes from his garden.
To artists, Durand-Ruel was “a paterfamilias [father figure], a confidant, a friend and a banker all rolled into one,” Claire writes in the exhibition catalogue. Looking back, she is amazed and touched by his faith in the paintings, especially through years of public condemnation. “He had both vision and stubbornness,” she says, laughing. “He was so optimistic. He’s very impressive.”
Enduring Legacy
Today, the artists Durand-Ruel supported are some of the most famous in history. Their work sells for up to hundreds of millions of dollars, is collected by top museums and has been exhibited in almost every corner of the globe. Australia alone held major French impressionism shows in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2025 – some of which were returning shows that were cut short during pandemic lockdowns. They sparked criticism for being formulaic crowd-pullers, prioritising spectacle over new ideas, although Mathieu believes there is still much to learn about the movement.
“I’m searching every day, all the time, and there are still things to bring into the light,” she says. “There are still many things to discover.” Beyond the intellectual, both curators hope the exhibition will spark emotions. “I want visitors to have a sense of beauty,” Mathieu says. “I want them to experience how wonderful these paintings are. These paintings of colour, of light, of happiness and hope.” “It’s pure joy,” adds Claire. In today’s world, she says, “it’s what people need”.
Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel, art dealer among the artists runs from 20 June to 11 October at Geelong Gallery.
