How and why was Impressionism invented in Paris in the early 1870s, and why does it still matter today? This year marks the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition, celebrated by a new exhibition, Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism at the Musée d' Orsay and the National Gallery of Art. A trip to see this show in Washington will ground our investigation into the social conditions, geographies, and ideologies that informed this radical new way of painting. Readings will include primary sources alongside brand new and classic scholarship on the Impressionist avant-garde.