David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

Guards had to be placed around the
painting to keep the crowds of spectators
at bay. “An atmosphere of hysteria and
even fear predominated,” the historian
Ross King writes. “Some spectators
collapsed in ‘epidemics of crazed
laughter’ while others, mainly women,
turned their heads from the picture in
fright.” In 1868, Renoir, Bazille, and
Monet managed to get paintings accepted
by the Salon. But halfway through the
Salon’s six-week run, their works were
removed from the main exhibition space
and exiled to the dépotoir—the rubbish
dump—a small, dark room in the back of
the building, where paintings considered
to be failures were relocated. It was