In the wake of France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 and after the upheaval of the Paris Commune, these artists are acutely aware of being “the men and women of the future” as journalist Emile Zola, their friend and supporter, calls them. Their art was considered outrageous at the time, but gave birth to a long lasting and influential artistic movement: Impressionism. This exhibition in 1874 stands out as a culminating point in the emergence of modern art, revealing a new generation of young feverish artists with a vision and wanting to embrace modernity. What is the point of reproducing reality when it is being captured realistically by this new emerging technique called photography. Their subjective impression of reality focusing on light and movement, using new painting techniques, new subjects and approaches opened the way to a far-reaching artistic revolution. Their landscape and portraits take us from Paris and the Batignolles district where they lived to the banks of the Seine or the Normandy countryside they reached by train, to paint outdoor. 

Why and how did these independent minded artists converge and share this artistic vision? What influenced their aesthetics and how did the public and critics of the time react to their exhibition? What dynamics played out among these artists? How did they support each other and who were the leaders? Who were the gallerists, the early collectors who helped steer up their career as painters in Paris and bring their fame all the way to London, Berlin and New York? 

Based on unpublished research, using their correspondence, this documentary looks back at this key moment in the History of Art, where the old and the new symbolically confronted each other to create a new aesthetic.