This article situates the changing installation practices of the Impressionist exhibitions in relation to a variety of late nineteenth-century Paris art venues, including the Salon, art circles such as the Mirlitons, the dealers Georges Petit and Durand-Ruel, and the Societe des Independents. Relying principally on documentation from critical reviews and contemporary illustrations, the author correlates display practices with understandings of contemporary art that revolved around the issues of the decorative and the autonomous tableau, the private and the public space.