Monet's Impression, Sunrise: The Painting That Named Impressionism
Claude Monet's 1872 oil painting Impression, Sunrise, housed at the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, is a seminal work of French Impressionism. Painted in a few hours from the Hôtel de l'Amirauté in Le Havre, Normandy, it depicts the harbor at dawn with loose brushstrokes and unmixed colors. The painting features three smuggler boats and industrial elements like chimneys and cranes blending into mist. Monet exhibited it at the Société Anonyme Coopérative of 1874, where critic Louis Leroy derisively coined the term 'Impressionists' in his April 25, 1874 review for Le Charivari. Today, Monet is globally celebrated while Leroy is obscure.
Key facts
- Claude Monet painted Impression, Sunrise in November 1872.
- The painting is oil on canvas, 50 cm high and 65 cm wide.
- It was painted from the Hôtel de l'Amirauté in Le Havre, Normandy, France.
- The scene includes the Quai au Bois and Quai Courbe with industrial elements.
- Three small boats in the painting are described as smuggler vessels.
- Monet exhibited the work at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874.
- Critic Louis Leroy wrote a negative review in Le Charivari on April 25, 1874.
- The term 'Impressionism' originated from Leroy's review of this painting.
Entities
Artists
- Claude Monet
Institutions
- Musée Marmottan Monet
- Société Anonyme Coopérative
- Le Charivari
Locations
- Paris
- France
- Le Havre
- Normandy
- Hôtel de l'Amirauté
- Quai au Bois
- Quai Courbe
- Eure River