In the 1870s, a revolutionary group of French painters wanted the freedom to explore their own aesthetic, to move art into the modern era. Shut out of the Salon jury, they created their own exhibition, and the impressionist movement was born. Combining their strengths, the “new painters” rose from obscurity to renown and forever changed the world’s perception of art and beauty. But the band of painters did not remain united for long. Within a decade, changing politics and evolving aesthetic goals threatened to tear the artists apart. When the Dreyfus Affair split France along ideological fault lines at the close of the nineteenth century, the impressionist movement finally collapsed.
The impressionists differed in their political and social opinions well before the Dreyfus Affair. Their varying attitudes toward France’s Jewish population proved to be one of the most divisive issues. Philip Nord wrote in his book, Impressionists and Politics, “On this point - on the matter of how to perceive and judge such novel types - the fissure of difference among the new painters widened into an abyss” (Nord, 88). In fact, anti-Semitism caused the first defection from the impressionist movement. 
In 1882, the deeply prejudiced Auguste Renoir broke off all contact with Jews, ending his relationships with Jewish patrons and writing to a friend, “I’m washing my hands of the Jews” (qtd. Nord, 93). Rather than exhibit his work alongside Jewish impressionist Camille Pissarro, Renoir refused to participate in the 1882 independent salon. In a letter to art-dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, Renoir explained his absence, writing, “The public does not like what smells of politics, and as for me, at my age, I don’t want to be a revolutionary. To stick by the Israelite Pissarro, that’s Revolution” (qtd. Nord, 93). Although Renoir reached the height of intolerance in the 1880s, it was not until the Dreyfus Affair a decade later that the “Jewish question” divided the rest of the country, and along with it, the impressionist movement.
In October of 1894, Albert Dreyfus, a Jewish colonel in the French army, was accused of selling military secrets to the Germans. Within a month, the officer was convicted of treason in a closed trial, humiliated in a public ceremony and exiled to Devil’s Island (Derfler, 1-2). After Dreyfus had spent two years on the island, anti-Semitic Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Henry discovered that Dreyfus was innocent, and another officer, Major Walsin Esterhazy, was in fact the traitor. Afraid the mistake would be discovered, Henry forged several documents that cemented Dreyfus’ guilt (Derfler, 2). Henry’s fears were realized when independent investigators implicated Esterhazy, and the case was reopened. Court-martialed in 1897, 
Esterhazy was swiftly acquitted based on the evidence manufactured by Henry (Derfler, 3).
Public interest in the case was raised to the level of hysteria when well-known author Emile Zola published a letter in the newspaper L’Aurore calling the acquittal “a crime against humanity” (qtd. Zola, 67). In J’accuse, Zola named each conspirator in the military’s massive cover up and called upon the French government to restore justice (Zola, 66-73). Soon, the Dreyfus case ballooned into the Dreyfus Affair, a debate not about guilt or innocence but about military corruption, government reform, industrial revolution and the Jewish community as a whole. Despite the complexity of the political issues, France was split into two overly simplistic camps: the Dreyfusards and the anti-Dreyfusards (Kleeblatt, 1).
Zola, a respected art-critic as well as a novelist, shared the impressionists’ social circle, and his letter spurred many of them to action. The Dreyfusards rushed to support their friend. Monet wrote to Zola two days after the publication of J’accuse “to congratulate him for his valor and his courage” (qtd. Nochlin, 141). Pissarro wrote a similar note, asking Zola to, “Accept the expression of my admiration for your great courage and the nobility of your character” (qtd. Nord, 100). Later, Monet signed the Manifesto of the Intellectuals supporting Dreyfus’ innocence and gave his painting Le Bloc (1889) to Georges Clemenceau, whose newspaper had published Zola’s letter, as a token of gratitude (Nochlin, 141).
The anti-Dreyfusards, most notably Degas, Renoir and Cezanne, were not swayed by Zola’s letter. They publicly denounced him and attacked his supporters, especially their fellow artists. Philip Nord wrote, “Rants, quarrels, ruptures: such were the tactics of the anti-Dreyfusard camp among the one-time new painters” (Nord, 105). Indeed, they often abandoned civility in the heat of debate, ending the friendships that held the impressionist group together. Renoir violently fought with Edma Morisot, and Degas stopped speaking to his friends Cassatt and Pissarro (Nord, 105). In the impressionist movement’s early days, Degas had been one of Pissarro’s biggest supporters, but during the Affair, Degas disparaged his friend’s art. When reminded that he used to admire Pissarro’s work, Degas said, “Yes, but that was before the Dreyfus Affair” (qtd. Nochlin, 142). For Degas and many of his colleagues, the passions of the Affair overwhelmed both friendship and artistic integrity.
Zola was convicted of libel for writing J’accuse and expelled from France, but his letter spurred the government to investigate the Dreyfus case. In 1898, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry confessed to forging evidence and committed suicide, and Major Esterhazy fled to England, where he confessed (Derfler, 4). Colonel Dreyfus was granted a presidential pardon a year later, and was fully exonerated and awarded the Legion of Honor in 1906. It was not until 1995, however, that the French military officially acknowledged his innocence. Zola died before he could be cleared, but his ashes were moved to the Pantheon to rest alongside France’s honored dead (Derfler, 6).
After twelve years of unrest, the Affair ended and France’s anti-Semitic fervor subsided. But the impressionist movement was damaged beyond repair. With the Dreyfus Affair forcing old tensions to the surface and inciting new arguments, political differences finally triumphed over shared aesthetics and ended the era of the impressionist.
top left: Nadar, Paul. Photograph of Nadar’s studio at 35 Boulevard des Capucines, the location of the first impressionist exhibition, from www.artchive.com.
top right: Renoir, Pierre-Auguste. Self-Portrait. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
second on right: Pissarro, Camille. Self-Portrait. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
second on left: Drawing of Alfred Dreyfus. From Zola, Emile. The Dreyfus Affair: J’accuse and Other Writings. Ed. Alain Pagès. Trans. Eleanor Levieux. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996.
third on right: Zola, Emile. “J’Accuse.” L’Aurore. 13 Jan. 1898.
bottom right: Nadar, Paul. Photograph of Emile Zola. From Zola, Emile. The Dreyfus Affair: J’accuse and Other Writings. Ed. Alain Pagès. Trans. Eleanor Levieux. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996.
bottom left: “Le Traitre.” Le Petit Journal. 13 Jan. 1895.