The Strange Case of Monet's "Impression Sunrise"
The name of perhaps the most influential movement in modern art was derived from Claude Monet's painting “Impression Sunrise.” However, was the painting mis-named?
I first became interested in this question during a visit to Le Havre. The painting in question is a view of Le Havre Harbor, painted in 1872. After an afternoon visit to that city's Museum of Modern Art (MuMA), I walked along the edge of the harbor and came across a placard indicating that it marked the spot where Monet had painted “Impression Sunrise.” Although “Impression Sunrise” is quite loosely done with vague shapes to indicate the landmarks, I could see that this was indeed the view that Monet painted. I was particularly amused that the cruise ship that I was traveling on, Norwegian Breakaway, was in the center of this view. I then realized that the side of the cruise ship closest to me was in shadow. This was significant because the Sun in Monet's painting would have been on the other side of the ship. Since this was the afternoon, the side of the cruise ship closest to me should have been in sunlight if the Sun depicted in Monet's painting was rising. One would only expect the near side of the cruise ship to be in shadow if the painting actually depicts a sunset. Returning to Le Havre the next year, I repeated the experiment. Once again, the side of the cruise ship (this time, Anthem of the Seas) closest to the city was in shadow in the afternoon. A week later, I returned to Le Havre on Queen Mary 2. This time, I climbed to the top deck while it was still dark to await the sunrise. I found that the Sun rose over the city. While due to the movement of the Earth, the place where the sunrise occurs changes during the course of a year, this sunrise was just about 180 degrees away from where the Sun is in Monet's painting. But surely, Monet must have known whether it was a sunrise or a sunset when he named the painting. However, it seems that Monet did not name the painting. The painting was shown at what has become known as the First Impressionist Exhibition in 1874. It was not an exhibition in a professional art gallery. Rather, a group of friends who were dissatisfied with the way their avant garde works were handled by the officials overseeing the annual Paris Salon decided to stage their own exhibition. Held in a studio borrowed from the photographer Nadar, the exhibition was a do-it-yourself project with the artists, their friends and family performing the various tasks necessary to mount an exhibition. Edmond Renoir, brother of the artist Pierre-August Renoir, took on the task of putting together the catalogue for the exhibition. He went to each artist and asked him or her for the titles of the works that they would have in the exhibition. When it came to the painting in question, Monet did not have an answer for Edmond and said he would tell him later. Coming up with a title was not a priority for Monet as each time Edmond would ask, Monet put off giving him an answer. Finally, it was getting close to the deadline for printing the catalogue and Edmond demanded an answer. “Call it 'Impression,” Monet replied casually. Edmond did not think much of Monet's choice for the title so he decided to embellish it to become “Impression Sunrise.” Thus, Monet was not the one who said that the painting depicted a sunrise. Monet came to regret his casual approach to naming this painting – albeit for another reason. Once the exhibition opened, the critic for the newspaper Le Charivart, Louis Leroy, wrote a scathing satirical review. Keying off the title of Monet's painting, he dismissed the artists in the exhibition as just impressionists. The name stuck. Perhaps this is not surprising, considering that that name has much more appeal than the name the artists had selected to call themselves, i.e., the “Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, etc.” Some of the artists came to embrace the name Leroy gave the group. However, Monet did not, saying in later life: “I still very much regret having caused the naming of a group whose majority had nothing impressionist about it." See our profiles of these Impressionists and members of their circle.
Frederic Bazille Eugene Boudin Marie Bracquemond Gustave Caillebotte Mary Cassatt Paul Cezanne Edgar Degas Henri Fantin-Latour Eva Gonzales Paul Gauguin Armand Guillaumin Edouard Manet Claude Monet (Part I The Early Years) Claude Monet (Part II High Impressionism) Claude Monet (Part III The Giverny Years) Berthe Morisot Camille Pissarro Pierre Auguste Renoir Alfred Sisley Suzanne Valadon |
Above: Claude Monet's "Impression Sunrise", now in the Musee Marmottan Monet in Paris. (Photo: Public domain).
Above: Norwegian Breakaway in Le Havre harbor. The placard indicates that this is the view that Monet painted in "Impression Sunrise." If the cruise ship had been there when Monet painted the picture, the Sun would have been on the far side of the ship. Therefore, the side of the ship closest to us would have been in shadow if the view in the painting was indeed a sunrise. However, this photograph was taken in the afternoon and the side of the ship closest to us is in shadow.
Above: A year later, Anthem of the Seas in Le Havre harbor. Whereas Norwegian Breakaway had been berthed along the inner side of the cruise terminal (i.e. the side closest to the city), Anthem is berthed along the outer side. As with the photo of Breakaway, this photo was taken in the afternoon. Once again, the side of the ship closest to the city is in shadow.
Below: Sunrise over Le Havre taken from Queen Mary 2 when that ship was docked in the same spot as Anthem was in the earlier photo. Note that the Sun is coming up over the city. 
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Art Travel - The Strange Case of Monet's "Impression Sunrise".