Impression Sunrise claude monet famous paintings
“Oh, it was indeed a strenuous day when I ventured into the first exhibition on the boulevard des Capucines,” he begins in a mocking tone. When mockery gives rise to a masterpiece… and an artistic movement!Īmong those detractors was the critic Louis Leroy, who wrote an article entitled The Impressionists’ Exhibition in the newspaper Le Charivari.
And while some forward-thinking critics praised the quality of the works exhibited, the press as a whole was not kind to the artists in the exhibition. These names are now internationally renowned, but at the time they were synonymous with dissidence and sometimes mediocrity. In the booklet, you can read Degas, Cézanne, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, etc. A total of 165 works by 30 artists were displayed. The first exhibition by the group – later known as the Impressionists – was held in April 1874. The watchword? Precisely not to have any and not to impose any artistic guidelines. In winter 1873, they set up a cooperative that would allow them to organise their own exhibitions at the heart of Paris. Monet, Manet, Renoir and their friends then decided to join forces.
This is an allusive and subjective painting of which Monet was nonetheless proud. The Academy and the Impressionists: the battle between old and new
His subject choices were considered superficial, his strokes unfinished and not technical enough. In reality, Monet’s work was not rated highly by his peers. He enjoyed painting from nature in the open air facing the subject and had had a few successes ( Woman in the Green Dress in 1866, Bathers at La Grenouillère in 1869), but he was not yet able to live off his painting. The father of Water Lilies was little known at the time. The 31-year-old painter could not have imagined that this canvas would mark a turning point in his life… and the history of art. On a visit to Le Havre, Claude Monet decided to take his oils, a few brushes and a blank canvas to sketch, from his hotel window, a view of the Normandy port bathed in sunlight and shrouded in mist. It all started in the early morning of 13 November 1872.