The opening section of the exhibition retraces, starting with Ingres, the ferment that ran through the Parisian art world of the late 19th century, imprisoned within an academic vision and rigidly controlled by the mechanism of the Salons. Aulic painting and classical themes ruled the day, and artists were trapped in a rigid world, which did not accept novelty and experimentation. The turmoil that led to a revolt against the prevailing academicism and resulted in the choice of themes focusing on the countryside and working-class world arose thanks to artists such as Delacroix, Courbet, Millet, Corot and others, who went out of their studios and ateliers and went into the streets, the fields, the real world, to tell the story of the transformations taking place in a society that was moving towards the dawn of a new century, brimming with discoveries and transformations, both social and technological.