Caillebotte Cassatt Degas Manet Monet Morisot Pissarro Renoir

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Monet painted this misty sunrise from a hotel window that looked out upon the harbor of Le Havre, one of the busiest seaports in France. In the dim morning light, you can see smokestacks and the masts of a sailing ship reflected in the water.

Impressionist insults
The Impressionists got their name from an art critic who disliked their work. The critic attended a show in which Monet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot, Pissarro and others exhibited their paintings. In his nasty review of Monet's Impression, Sunrise, he wrote, "Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than this landscape." He went on to call them all "impressionists." Even though the critic meant to insult them, the artists liked the term and were soon using it themselves. Monet said, "I am, and always will be, an impressionist."

"I adore the sea, but I know that to do her justice you have to view her every day, at all hours, from the same vantage point, to learn how she lives."
- Claude Monet