On Rejection

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Vetheiul in the Fog Oil Claude Monet

“My rejection at the Salon brought an end to my hesitation [to settle in Paris] since after this failure I can no longer claim to cope... alas, that fatal rejection has virtually taken the bread out of my mouth.”
- Claude Monet

It is hard to imagine today that Monet faced tremendous resistance to his work during the early years of his working life. Of course, he was expressing an entirely new form of painting, so he might have expected “blowback” from the French Art Establishment until Impressionism was ultimately accepted. At that time in France, becoming accepted by the formal art establishment at the annual Salon exhibitions meant the difference between professional success or failure, eating or starving. During the first two decades of his career, he had no consistent outlet for his paintings. Fortunately for all of us, Monet eventually gained…