The Man Who Made Monet: How Impressionism was Saved from Obscurity

Michael Prodger | The Guardian | 21st February 2015

A story of the ‘art dealer as hero’. Impressionist painting in the 1870’s was mostly the object of derision. As luck would have it, Monet, Renoir and other Impressionists, received decades-long support from Paul Durand-Ruel, a conservative dealer on London’s New Bond St.  Durand-Ruel risked bankruptcy on more than one occasion but after finally gaining critical acclaim (initially in the US) sold Impressionist paintings seemingly by the truck load. “Without him, said Monet, we wouldn’t have survived”.