Global Artistic Production in 1874 Beyond Impressionism

An article examines the diverse artistic landscape of 1874, the year of the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris. It argues that art history's focus on Impressionism creates a narrow view, overlooking numerous significant artists working globally in various styles. The piece highlights works created that year by French artists like Léon Augustin Lhermitte, Gustave Courbet, and Rosa Bonheur, as well as artists from the UK, Russia, Italy, Spain, the US, Japan, and India. These artists produced works ranging from realism and academic painting to battle scenes and ukiyo-e, demonstrating that 1874 was a year of rich, concurrent artistic activity far beyond the Parisian avant-garde.