If you live in California or are transiting through San Francisco, by all means make your way to the de Young for the exhibition ‘The Birth of Impressionism’. While by all means go for the pictures- a once in ten lifetime’s loan while the building works continue at the Musée d’Orsay- the title of the exhibition gives insight into an important methodological slant. So, a body might in fact learn something, too.
That of course impressionism did not rise fully formed in its first exhibition in 1874 is easy to appreciate, but is generally forgotten. As, of course, is the importance of the Salon, the annual exhibition of the French Academy. And it was the social importance of the rejection of the Salon and academicism in favor of impressionism that has a significance of which artistic production was a byproduct, albeit a lovely one.
With the technical advances of mass communication through photography, newspapers and telegraphy, the painting techniques and approved genres of academicism necessarily became anachronistic. I suppose that most courses in art history date the beginning of modern art with the socially realistic subjects of Courbet in the middle of the nineteenth century, and, of course, with improvements in communications making the plight of the poor manifestly apparent, academic subjects became increasingly just a manner of authoritarian fancy dress. And, more importantly, an aspect of social control. The degree to which the social control exercised by the ruling elite was resented by the population was made abundantly clear with the Paris commune. That the communards were quelled within a few months was beside the point- the speed at which it spread and its bloody savagery were shocking proof of deep, broadly based disquiet, painfully reminiscent to everyone of le Terreur of 1793-4.
Certainly this is an aspect of the exhibition that can be divined from looking at the pictures, but times being the way they are, it is not the primary focus, or, as I think about it, should it be, except for those that want it. The catalog is great, with plenty of lucid text putting the pictures in their proper context. Times being the way they are, most people, and this includes me most hours on most days, want to see something pleasing, and The Birth of Impressionism certainly is. 
By the way, our friends on Facebook, tell us what you think about the exhibition- what you liked, or didn’t, and why.