An ambitious entrepreneur, Durand-Ruel cultivated international interest in French artists by establishing art galleries and exhibitions in London, New York, Berlin, Brussels, among other places.

[2] Additionally, he played a role in the decentralization of art markets in France, which prior to the mid-19th century was monopolized by the Salon system.

In 1851, Paul enrolled at the military school Ecole Militaire de Saint-Cyr but was forced to leave shortly after for health reasons.

In 1865, Paul took over the family business which represented artists such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and the members of the Barbizon school of French landscape painting.

[4] During the 1860s and early 1870s, Durand-Ruel was an important advocate and successful art dealer of the Barbizon School but he is best known for his relationship with a group of painters who would become known as the Impressionists.

The Impressionists were the first group of artists excluded from the Salon to successfully launch a series of art exhibitions outside of the state-sponsored system, and they did so with the assistance of Paul Durand-Ruel and other dealers.

The emergence of the dealer-artists relationship and independent exhibitions beginning in the 1870s broke down the monopoly power of the Salon, and began a new era of art markets.

[3] This group of artists were known for their work in Romanticism and landscape painting, and included Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Théodore Rousseau, Jean-François Millet, Eugène Delacroix, and Gustave Courbet.

Through organizing international exhibitions and curating an active public discourse around his art, Durand-Ruel's investment in La Belle École proved immensely profitable, and helped finance his later support for Impressionist artists.

Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley are among the important Impressionist artists that Durand-Ruel helped to establish.

"[13] During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, Durand-Ruel left Paris and escaped to London, where he met up with a number of exiled French artists including Charles-François Daubigny, Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro.

[14] In December 1870, he opened the first of ten Annual Exhibitions of the Society of French Artists at his new London gallery at 168 New Bond Street, under the management of Charles Deschamps.

[3] During this time, he acquired iconic paintings of the early 19th century, such as Jacques-Louis David's Marat and Delacroix's Death of Sardanapalus to showcase in his exhibitions and enhance publicity.

[3] His business dealings with American collectors began during the 1860s,[3] but were initially kept to short-term ventures, such as exhibitions in Boston and Philadelphia, as well as client visits in Paris.

In addition to the permanent gallery in New York City, he organized exhibitions in Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago, among other locations.

[3] With his main focus in the United States in the 1880s, Paul Durand-Ruel's presence in Germany came through the help of the German art critique Emil Heilbut, who purchased and sold many paintings between 1880 and 1896.