Impression, Sunrise

This view of Le Havre at sunrise became one of the defining images of Impressionism. Monet’s loose brushwork and atmospheric haze reduce the harbor to light, mist, and movement, while the bold orange-red sun is a contrasting focal point. First exhibited in 1874, the work later gave the iconic art movement its name.

In 1874, Claude Monet sold the painting to art collector Ernest Hoschedé. In 1877, physician and art benefactor Georges de Bellio acquired it. In 1940, it was bequeathed to the Académie des Beaux-Arts and the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris. The painting was stolen in 1985 and recovered in 1990 during a police raid in Porto-Vecchio, Southern Corsica.