Oscar-Claude Monet was born in Paris on 14 November 1840. He was born into a shopkeeper family that was neither rich nor poor. Early in his school career, Monet’s love and skill for drawing became apparent.
Impression, Sunrise marks a clear technical split from Monet’s previous works. It is a sketchy painting that has parts of blank canvas sticking out unpainted between layers of soft paint washes.
The boats, water, sky, and sun are almost at the service of Monet’s larger study of color and light. The scene is, therefore, not about what is depicted, but entirely about the way it is painted.
The colors are uncharacteristically dark for Monet. It is one of the first paintings where he started experimenting with the effect smoke and fog have on the changing light over a landscape.
The boat closest to the viewer is painted in the darkest shade of gray-black. The second boat is painted in a slightly lighter shade. This scaling of shades creates the illusion of depth.
If we take the post-war context into account, the rising red sun can be seen as a symbol of the dawn of a new time. It sets the mood of potential in the painting – its vibrant color is representative of the exciting change present in Paris.
The style is seen as Impressionist but it is far more dismantled, darker, and sketchy than the impasto, bright, and movement-based paintings that Monet created after it.
As Monet created this painting in one sitting from a window looking out on the harbor, it was created quite quickly and uncomplicatedly. Monet created multiple paintings of the same port at different times of the day.
Monet’s sunrise painting kickstarted this movement by attaching the name Impressionism to the already practiced philosophy of painting the impressions of nature.