Who painted Impression Sunrise which played a significant role in giving Impressionism its name?

‘Impression, Sunrise’ was displayed to the public at the First Impressionist Exhibition in the spring of 1874.

In contrast with the official Paris Salon, organised by a panel of conservative judges, the first impressionist exhibition allowed the impressionists to exhibit the kind of work they wanted to create.

At this time, the group was called the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptures, Printmakers etc. and the key members included Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot and Edgar Degas.

Organisation

The exhibition was held at the studio of a photographer called Nadar on the Boulevard des Capucines.

The group was organised democratically and a number of protocols were put in place to make sure that the exhibition would be fair.

• Instead of hanging the paintings on multiple levels, for instance, with younger and lesser known artists at the very top, the Impressionists agreed to hang their work in two rows.
• The smaller pictures went below and the larger works went on top.

Here's a photo of the catalogue:

Naming of Impression: Sunrise

No great thought went into the naming of Claude Monet's Impression: Sunrise.

Renoir's brother Edmond was in charge of producing the catalogue for the first exhibition. Monet explained what happened next as follows:

"They asked me for a title for the catalogue. Because it couldn't really be taken for a view of Le Havre, I said: 'Put Impression.'"

Edmond added the 'Sunrise' - and the rest is history. The French name of the work is 'Impression: Soleil Levant'.

Negative reception

This refreshing, daring alternative to the Salon drew a lot of attention from the press. It was even said in some quarters that the Salon had become too restrictive and that its 1872 edition had failed to reflect recent history (and in particular the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian war).

But overall the critics were harsh. Take the words of Jules Castagnary:

“Coming after the war and the terrible events of the past year, the show should have had an original and gripping make-up. Instead, it is absolutely devoid of character. […] You walk around there not knowing what country you're in or what year it is. It doesn't have the soul or life of France.”

Many of the artworks were met with derision. For example, the art critic Louis Leroy described the paintings on display as

“hostile to good artistic manner, to devotion to form, and respect for the masters.”

Unfortunately, Leroy was not the only critic to ridicule the first impressionist exhibition. The critic for La Patrie newspaper for instance described how:

“Seeing the lot, you burst out laughing but with the last ones you finally get angry and you're sorry you did not give the franc you paid to get in to some beggar.”

Leroy's Review

Leroy's review is arguably the most important ever produced in the history of art.

First, it was entitled

"Exhibition of the Impressionists at the Boulevard des Capucines."

Though the term 'impressionism' had been used before, it was only after Leroy's article that it began to catch on. Leroy of course intended it as a term of insult. But by the third impressionist exhibition, the impressionist group had adopted it. And it stuck.

Secondly, Leroy's article was remarkably scathing of Impression: Sunrise. The article took the form of a spoof discussion between a professor of art (called Vincent) and his student, which takes place whilst walking around the first exhibition.

In relation to Impression: Sunrise, Leroy said the following:

"'What does this one represent?' asks Vincent. 'What does the catalogue say?'

'Impression: Sunrise.'

'Impression! Of course. There must be an impression somewhere in it. What freedom ... what flexibility of style! Wallpaper in its early stages is more finished than that.'"

Thirdly, it was not just Monet who was criticised. Pissarro's Hoarfrost came in for a bashing too. Here, Leroy wrote:

"'Those? Ploughed furrows? That is hoar-frost? But they're nothing but palette scrapings, put down in parallel lines on a bit of dirty canvass. There's no head or tail to it, no top or bottom, front or back.'

'That may be so; but it is an impression, nonetheless.'

'Well, it's a weird impression'"

Leroy's criticisms of Pissarro were as unfair as his criticisms of Monet. Here is the beautiful Pissarro canvass that he was attacking:

Positive reviews

On the other hand, not all of the reviews of the exhibition were as insulting.

Emile d’Hervilly wrote about the show for Le Rappel, describing Monet’s work as possessing “infinite grace and spirit.” He also praised the show as a whole, saying that the works were “fresh” and “gripping” and that their

“generous exaggerations are even charming and consoling when one thinks of the nauseating banalities of the academic routine.”

Armand Silvestre also offered his support describing Monet as “the cleverest and the most daring” of the artists featured in the exhibition. He believed,

“You need special eyes in order to be sensitive to the subtlety of their tonal relations, which constitute their honor and merit”.

At the same time, however, he was unsure of their pursuit of the ‘impression' and its suggestion that everything in the world is beautiful enough to be worth painting.

In all the reviews of the exhibition, ‘Impression, Sunrise’ was only referenced five times. Overall it failed to gain the attention that other paintings did and was far behind the most talked about of Monet’s works, which included Boulevard des Capucines (below). Ernest Chesnau, for instance, simply described that he stopped in front of the painting. He does not offer any further description or opinion on the piece!

To learn more, why not check out our page on the first impressionist exhibition?

Who painted the Impressionism sunrise?

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