Durand-Ruel's Impressionists in Australia

Paul Durand-Ruel (1831–1922) was a Paris art dealer who, when the young Impressionist artists were critically shunned, bought their work. He helped their cause and eventually transformed public taste across Europe and US. In a life devoted to art, Paul bought and promoted 12,000+ works to ensure Impressionism was loved worldwide. Other experts ignored the new artists, so Impressionism mightn’t have got going without him. This C19th dealer shaped the art market then by discovering artists who became global favourites. Durand-Ruel was a great purchaser. He was the first buyer of Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party & Monet's Stacks of Wheat, c100 works in Musée d'Orsay's Impressionist collection, and 100+ work in Dr Albert Barnes' Foundation, Philadel. Paul Durand-Ruel in his gallery in 1910WAMUIn 1868, 2 years before he met Durand-Ruel, Claude Monet was so broke he tried to throw himself into the Seine. He and his friends had been slaving away in poverty for ages by then; the…