Impression, Sunrise - Claude Monet

Impression, Sunrise (French: Impression, soleil levant) is an 1872 painting by Claude Monet
first shown at what would become known as the "Exhibition of the Impressionists" in Paris in
April, 1874. The painting is credited with inspiring the name of the Impressionist movement.
Monet claimed that he titled the painting Impression, Sunrise due to his hazy painting style in
his depiction of the subject: "They asked me for a title for the catalogue, it couldn't really be
taken for a view of Le Havre, and I said: 'Put Impression.'" In addition to this explanation for
the title of the work, art historian Paul Smith claims that Monet might have named the
painting Impression to excuse his painting from accusations of being unfinished or lacking
descriptive detail, but Monet received these criticisms regardless of the title.
The term impressionism was not new and was used prior to Monet’s work, particularly to
describe paintings from the Barbizon school. It was also a term associated with the work of
Manet and Daubigny. The term was originally used as a way of describing the effects of the
scene on a painter or the effect that paintings had on viewers.
Interpretation
There are several interesting points to note when studying this picture. First, the brightness of
the orange sun against the grey background appears to make the sunset stand out in the
painting. However, the sun is no brighter than any of the other colours used. In fact, if this
painting is viewed in black and white, the sunrise becomes almost invisible. This is because of
the way the human eye perceives luminance and colour.
The second interesting point to analyse is the background, which predominantly consists of
steamships and smoke chimneys. Le Havre was a thriving port and some art historians claim
that the prominence industry in this painting represents political implications. It is particularly
interesting when you realise that the true scene that Monet could see when completing his
painting included houses to the left side of the jetty but Monet chose to ignore these and not
include them in his painting so as not to obscure the industrial aspect of the scene.
Monet used light and loose brush strokes that simply suggested the scene rather than exactly
depicting what the eye could see. It is said that Monet worked at great speed on paintings in
this style as though he was trying to capture the movement of the light as it happened.
Some people have described Monet’s work as playing with the eye rather than impressing the
viewer. By this, the critics mean that it is interpreted differently from one person to the next
and each person will notice something different the longer they look at the painting. The
original image they see changes while they are looking at it and some people even claim to
feel a sense of movement in the picture.
Although the background is abstract and somewhat open to interpretation, this does not
necessarily mean there is no form, lines or shade. The style used simply means that greater
personal interpretation and intellect are required to discern the various elements of the
painting. As there is an element of ambiguity about the seascape, it requires a certain amount
of subjective perception.
As a result, there is a certain timeless quality to the painting. Regardless of whether it was
viewed it during the first exhibition or during the 21st century, it is possible for the viewer to
place their own meaning and symbolism to the painting.

Water Lilies
Water Lilies is not a name of a single painting, but a name of a series of works. During his
lifetime, Claude Monet comes back to this subject matter several times, and painted more than
250 water lilies paintings. Along with Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, Water Lilies are the
most iconic images of Impressionism.
The first series of "Water Lilies," a total of twenty-five canvases, was exhibited at the Galerie
Durand-Ruel in 1900. This was followed nine years later by a second series of forty-eight
canvases. "These landscapes of water and reflection have become an obsession," wrote Monet
on August 11, 1908. "This is beyond the strength of an old man, and yet I want to express
what I feel. I have destroyed some of the canvases. I begin once again. ... I hope something
will come of all this effort."
Monet planted the water lilies before he painted them. Monet organized his property at
Giverny as though it were a huge painting. Thanks to a small army of gardeners, he diverted a
river, planted water lilies, exotic flowers, weeping willows, bamboo trees, and willows. He
seeded the pond and added enclosures with white chickens, ducks, and pheasants. Nature,
recomposed by the artist, began to resemble his art. "My finest masterpiece," he later said, "is
my garden."
At the age of eighty-two Monet discovered that he had a cataract. The deterioration of his
eyesight was horrifying to the artist, who wrote, 'I realized with terror that I could see nothing
with my right eye .. a specialist... told me that I had a cataract and that the other eye was also
slightly affected. It's in vain that they tell me it's not serious, that after the operation I will see
os before, I'm very disturbed and anxious,' In 1923 he was operated on three times to try and
correct his right eye. The brilliant fiery reds and yellows of Water Lilies - Japanese Bridge,
1923 are indicative of the impaired sight of the artist, seeing his bridge within a reduced
palette. Yet it is the most evocative sum of color and light and composition, creating on
overall startlingly emotive effect.
Water Lilies opened the path to abstract painting. By the time of Monet's death in 1926 the art
world, both in Paris and in America, was a very different place from the one he had largely
struggled against during much of his life, Monet and his circle were the first to truly challenge
the conventions of Parisian art in the modern age, and by doing so and progressing their
works towards greater understanding of color and light, they opened the door for successive
generations of artists. Monet and his contemporaries broke down barriers and persevered in
their artistic quest against great hardship in order to achieve a freedom of expression that is
now taken for granted. Towards the end of his life, Monet's work increasingly reflected a
form of abstraction through his simplification of composition and reduction of all unessential
elements. By doing this ond through his obliquely structured compositions ond focus on pure
vivid colour, he set a precedent for later artists, particularly those of the Post-impressionist,
Expressionist and Abstract-expressionist movements.