Impression, Sunrise

In 1872, Claude Monet created a painting, as the most famous part of a 6 canvas series, that would later be known as revolutionary artwork for the Impressionist Art movement.  That painting is called Impression, soleil levant, also known as Impression, Sunrise.  Besides being the most artistically important of the series of pieces, that show the same scene but at different times of day and views, this painting is also probably Monet's most famous work of all his paintings.

With the word "Impression" in it's title, it became the description of what Impressionist painters were trying to achieve with their art.  The name Impressionism was born from this title and Impressionist Art thus had a foundation for it's movement.  As the subject for this artwork, Monet painted an industrial port in the French northern coast called Le Havre. 

Monet, Impression, soleil levant, 1872

Le Havre was a center of commerce for the country and Monet  may have chosen this port scene as his subject in order to promote a patriotic ode to the renewal of France that was just recovering from defeat in the Franco-Prussian war, of the early 1870's.      

At first most art critics did not think this piece was worthy of note but an important review by Louis Leroy, for the Exposition of 1874, changed that view.  Leroy introduced the term impression, taken from the title of the work, to describe the style of Monet's work and this introduction changed the importance of the painting for history.  The term was not only meant to describe the style of the movement but was also a kind of satirical deprecation of the art form as well.  Despite the disparagement,  Impression, Sunrise initiated and named this movement of art and has become the encapsulation of it's style as well.

Catalogue for the Impressionist Exhibition in 1874

References:   

The J. Paul Getty Museum

Wikipedia 

Longwood University, "Analysis of Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise", by Jamie Yurasits

Edouard Manet, The Kearsarge at Boulogne (1864) and The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama (1865)

Manet depicts a battle scene from the American Civil War, The Kearsarge at Boulogne, an image of Union cruiser USS Kearsarge, the winner in the Battle of Cherbourg.  He did not witness this battle but visited the scene a month later. This oil on canvas was probably based on a watercolor he made of it and was first exhibited in Paris in 1865 as La mer, la navire federal Kerseage en race de Boulogne-sure mer.  In France the ship was known as Kerseage while in the U.S. it was Kearsarge.

Manet, The Kearsarge at Boulogne, 1864

detail of The Kearsarge at Boulogne, altered image reveals color variations and textures

In 1865, Manet also painted The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama.  In 1872, the French novelist Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly said of this painting, "the sea (...) is more frightening than the battle".

Manet, The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama, 1865 

 Together these paintings commemorate the 1864 battle there when the USS Kearsarge sank the Confederate ship CSS Alabama off the coast of France.  It was a headlining and widely covered event.  

Since he was not there for the battle, Manet used press descriptions of the scene to reference his work.  These battle scene depictions were the first paintings that Manet ever made of a contemporary event.

Painting dimensions:
The Kearsarge at Boulogne, 32 1/8 x 39 3/8 in
The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama, 53 in x 50 in

Monet's Garden

I stumbled upon a print of a Monet painting, "The artist's garden at Giverny" that I really loved right away.  After researching it I found that there were countless copies of this painting that didn't look quite right.  I finally found one that I think is the original, it's from an art book scan and is listed in Wikimedia Commons. 

This painting exemplifies Monet's "broken color" technique, and the color palette is not as bold and bright as is usually seen in its many copies.

Monet, Le jardin de l'artiste a Giverny (1900)

"The point is to know how to use the colors, the choice of which is, when all is said and done, a matter of habit."  -Claude Monet