Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant)

Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant) is a painting by Claude Monet, for which the Impressionist movement was named. Download high resolution version (1040x800, 182 KB) The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Download high resolution version (1040x800, 182 KB) The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926) was a French impressionist painter. ... Impressionism was a 19th century art movement, that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists who began publicly exhibiting their art in the 1860s. ...

Dated 1872, but probably created in 1873, its subject is the harbour of Le Havre, using very loose brush strokes that suggest rather than delineate it. Monet explained the title later: "I was asked to give a title for the catalogue; I couldn't very well call it a view of Le Havre. So I said: 'Put Impression.'" 1872 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1873 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Le Havre is a city in Normandy, northern France, on the English Channel, at the mouth of the Seine. ...

It was displayed in 1874 during the first independent art show of the Impressionists (who were not yet known by that name). Critic Louis Leroy, inspired by the painting's name, titled his hostile review of the show in Le Charivari newspaper, "The Exhibition of the Impressionists", thus inadvertantly naming the new art movement. He wrote: 1874 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Louis Leroy was the journalist and literary critique of the french journal Le Charivari, coining the famous word impressionism in an attempt to denigrate the painters of the modern movement of his time. ... Le Charivari was an illustrated newspaper published in Paris, France from 1832 to 1937. ...

Impression — I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it … and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.

Reference

• Online version of the first impressionist exhibition (1874). Includes scans of the show catalog and comments by critics.