GERMAN GALLERY
Paul Durand-Ruel opened his ‘German Gallery’ at 168 New Bond Street in London and the first advertisement for the German Gallery is in the 'Morning Herald' in June 1866 and they held an exhibition of the works of William White Warren in November 1869 of ‘Original Sketches recently taken in Rome, Naples, Venice, Sardinia, Corsica, together with previous tours by W. W. Warren’. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, Durand-Ruel came to London, where he met up with several exiled French artists including Charles-François Daubigny, Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro. In December 1870, he opened the first of ten Annual Exhibitions of the Society of French Artists at his London gallery the exhibitions were under the management of art dealer Charles William Deschamps (1848-1908). It was during this time that Durand-Ruel began to introduce paintings by the then unknown Monet and Pissarro in his exhibitions and from 1872, he began making large purchases of Impressionist paintings. Durand-Ruel hosted London's first exclusively Impressionist exhibitions in 1882 and 1883. These exhibitions proved unsuccessful and almost bankrupted Durand-Ruel's enterprise. By February 1879, the Gallery at 168 New Bond Street had changed its name to the New Continental Galleries, and in May 1879 they held an exhibition of the works of Mihály Munkacsy (1844–1900), the Hungarian artist. They were still exhibiting from Bond Street in 1902 when they held an exhibition of the works of Dudley Hardy (1866-1922).
Since 1851 Paul Durand-Ruel (31 October 1831-5 February 1922) had worked in the Paris gallery of his father at the Rue de la Paix and in 1865 he took over the gallery of his late father and the Durand-Ruel Gallery concentrated on works of the Barbizon painters and other landscape pre-impressionists. In 1867, he moved his gallery from 1 Rue de la Paix, Paris, to 16 Rue Laffitte, with a branch at 111 Rue Le Peletier. In April 1871 he opened a further gallery in Brussels. Paul Durand-Ruel was the most important art-dealer for the Impressionists, without his efforts the works of the Impressionists would not have been known as they are today and for the Impressionists Durand-Ruel was crucial for financial support and for becoming known in France and on the international art-market.