Renoir And Monet In 1867 Paris: The Re-opening Of The Louvre And The 1867 International Exhibition Energizes The Avant-Garde

During the 1860s, Napoleon III had made such grand improvements to Paris that he wanted to showcase it internationally, and to do so he secured the city for the International Exhibition in 1867. Renoir and Monet, who had both grown up in neighborhoods that had been sacrificed to Napoleon's changes, painted a series of imposing canvases describing the Emperor's "New Paris." Perhaps the finest of these paintings is Renoir's "Pont des Arts" in the Norton Simon Collection. Richard Brettell discusses this picture and others painted in 1867 by these two young, avant-garde artists at a pivotal moment in the city's history.