The first impressionist exhibition of 1874 is a signpost for the changing ways in which paintings were being bought and sold. The tradition of the salon showing dominance was now being challenged, as the artists found dismay both in the selection process and the overcrowded nature of the display. The artists' struggle to gain selection into the salon was made more difficult by the lack of evolution in the style of the selected works, the tradition of the highly polished workman that left no trace of where they had been was the usual choice. These strict definitions of what was acceptable led to the first impressionists being met with much disgust by the critics and general public of the time. Why, was the word on everybody's lips, why did they paint like this? Why did they exhibit what looked much like sketches or studies? Why did they use these colours? It is when we try to answer these questions that we find that much of what the Impressionists were trying to achieve was to be found in the science of colour and light.
             "When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you-a tree, a house, a field, or whatever. Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact colour and shape, until it gives your own naive impression of the scene before you." A most famous quote of Monet that tells us the story of what he tried to achieve and shows how he saw painting. It is when we compare this to the tradition of the time we begin to see how the impressionists use of colour and the critics view of it are opposed to each other, which shall be elaborated on later.
             The way in which Monet among other impressionists came to their theories on painting is much debated, as the ideas which they express often comes back to the science of what constitutes light and how the eye perceives it. This much is agreed, that of what they did some mu...