In Paris in the 1860s, a group of artists who didn´t submit to the strict official standards of the Academy were rejected from the Salon  because of their modern style with unfinished appearance in non-idealized scenes. Their new style was called Impressionism. Although the term  was initially coined in a sarcastic sense by a critic, it was quickly accepted by the public and the artists themselves.

			QUICKLY WORK IN OPEN AIR (en plain air)
			FOCUSING ON LIGHT AND ITS EFFECTS
			SCENES OF EVERYDAY LIFE
			PURE INTENSE COLOURS AND NOT DARK BACKGROUNDS
			SMALL VISIBLE BRUSH STROKES
			PAINTINGS LOOK LIKE SKETCHES

Impressionist artists loved to paint modern Paris, its wide boulevards, the great buildings and gardens, and also the scenes of leisure in the urban life: cafes, cabarets, opera, dances...They depicted the joy for life of middle-classes in sparking colours.

But the accessibility of public spaces was not the same for men and women. Meanwhile the figure of the flâneur exemplified men´s connection to the public sphere, and male artists frequented cafes, cafe-concerts, cabarets and dance halls that they used to paint, women were not free in the same way, unless they wanted to risk their reputation. Bourgeois women could leave their domestic sphere in select public spaces and appropriately accompanied.

One of these suitable places for women to attend was the Opera.

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