A group of young painters in Paris, including Frédéric Bazille, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro, tried for years to get their art exhibited, but they had neither the cash not the clout of previously-exhibited art to impress the Académie des Beaux-Arts. They finally launched an independent exhibit on April 15, 1874, featuring 30 artists, but not Bazille, who had been killed in the Franco-Prussian War. The collective of artists called themselves the Société Anonyme des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, etc. However, one of the most scathing reviews of the exhibit mockingly called them the Impressionists. And the name stuck.
Other reviews of that first exhibit were glowing, calling the paintings fresh, gripping, or radical. The Impressionists held eight exhibitions in all, and are now beloved all over the world. The the Musée d’Orsay is hosting an exhibit called Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism until July 14th. Read the history of the movement and what makes Impressionism so different from what had been there before at Christie's. -via Nag on the Lake