Claude Monet, Sunrise

Claude Monet, Sunrise

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, Canvas Print, Oil Painting Replica and High Resolution Image Download

This famous painting, Impression, Sunrise, was created from a scene in the port of Le Havre. Monet depicts a mist providing a foggy backdrop to the piece situated in the French port. Orange and yellow tones create a vivid contrast with dark veins where any detail can be immediately perceived. It is a striking and intimate work showing smaller boats in the foreground seemingly swept along by the movement of the water. This is achieved once again, with separate brush strokes displaying various colors "shimmering" on the sea. 

From April 15 to May 15, 1874, Monet exhibited his work alongside Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, and thirty other artists. They organized their own exhibitions because they were generally rejected at the Paris Salon. Most visitors were disgusted and even angered by such sketchiness. Monet's Impression, Sunrise received the most attention, and some visitors even claimed they could not recognize what was shown at all.

M. Louis Leroy, a critic who attended the exhibition, wrote an article now famous, in Le Charivari, using the term "Impressionist" based on the title of this painting. Despite Leroy's sarcastic use of the word, the group decided to adopt it, and painters like Renoir and Degas were happy to be called Impressionists.

Despite its notoriety, the painting is not entirely characteristic of Monet's own work at this time or of Impressionism in general. It shows very little of the Impressionist approach to light and color. The colors are very restrained, and paint is applied not with contrasting brush strokes of color but with very fine washes. In some places, the canvas can even be seen, and the only use of impasto is in the depiction of sunlight reflected in the water. The painting is more atmospheric than analytical and has a spirit somewhat reminiscent of Turner's works. Yet, it demonstrates one feature of what was thought to be a revolutionary Impressionist painting particularly well. The technique is very 'rough' and could be seen as a preliminary study for a painting rather than a finished exhibit piece. In this work, Monet minimizes detail: docks in the tile background, boats in the foreground are merely suggested with a few brush strokes. The whole represents the artist's quick attempt to capture a fleeting moment. The highly visible, almost abstract technique draws almost more attention than the subject itself, a concept completely foreign to viewers at the time.

Today, Impression, Sunrise, along with Van Gogh's famous Starry Night, is considered the most notable Impressionist painting.