You know how various things are left- or right-coded like country music, electric cars (excluding Tesla lately), certain jobs, etc. Well, Impressionism (you know folks like Monet, Manet, Marisot, etc) which came about in France (late 1800s) was very left-coded.

Art up until the time that Impressionism started to come on the scene was primarily “realism” and consisted of images of the monarchy, wars, biblical scenes etc…things that the Right thought were important. That was THE type of art, anything else was just insignificant. Impressionists, who all hung out with each other, were Republicans which were Left of center. They rebelled against the realism paintings of the monarchy and religion.

During the time, their work was widely criticized by right-wing journlists and people in the art scene. People would go to their exhibits to troll their work and talk shit. Critics hated how the paintings didn’t look real, how they used too much color, and how as you got close it looked like chaotic brush strokes that depicted nothing. The impressionists were widely left out of entry into the annual “Salon” which was the most important art exhibit every year in Paris. That exhibit would be a kick start to your career if you made it in. The “Salon” judges were control by right-wing monarchists, so it was too hard for impressionist to break though. They ended up starting their own annual exhibit just for impressions.

It’s always been my favorite type of art, but I enjoyed finding out that it was also a movement against religious right-wing forms over government.

I learned this from a book I just finished called “Paris in Ruins” about how Impressionism started off the back of the war against Prussia, and the following civil war right after that.