Table of Contents
The painting is a view of the port Le Havre from a window of a hotel. This is one of the first paintings to appear as “unfinished”, but this is the beauty of the painting that it does not appear to be conventional. It focuses more on the mood and the environment rather than the eye-pleasing realistic sweetness. There are 3 boats in the scene in a straight line, made with aerial perspective. This aerial perspective can also be seen as it echoed in the water. The unrealistic reflection on the water with black lines fades away as we progress from the foreground to the background; it is same with the boats. The color composition creates a contrast of cold and warm colors. The lighting focuses on the warm sun, making a reflection of its light on the water. The cold atmospheric greyish-blue colors of the hazy mist in the scene seems to be illuminated by the sun and the orange sky. Monet uses off colors to build the canvas, on which he uses straight, rough strokes of pure color.
Historical Position
Until the end of 18th century, there were quite many regulations on art and how it should look like. A typical painting in that time had 3D perspective, in-depth use of colors, realistic color compositions, detailed contour lines and perfect forms of shapes and features. Displeased from the traditional form of art, Monet’s series of 7 paintings of Le Havre port revolutionized a new style. Inspired from Edouard Manet’s ease in workmanship, Monet adopted a similar stance in laying out his paintings. This series, with the specific painting, “Impression, Sunrise”, gave rise to “The Impressionist Movement” as it deviated away from the established art direction. Monet called this painting “Impression” because he wanted to “put impression” on it.
However, it was not the subject matter nor the color composition of the painting that grabbed the attention. Monet, along with other artists upheld an unofficial art exhibition to disjoin from the existing art form and give art a new direction.
