Impression, Sunrise
CLAUDE MONET
CLAUDE MONET, 1872. OIL ON CANVAS.
While not the originator of the movement, Matisse’s poetic work of light and atmosphere gave the Impressionist’s their name. Painted in the wake of France’s emergent industrialization, Monet’s painting was a statement of individuality. When reproduction has become easy, and exact copies are the domain of machines, expression must come in the form of spontaneity and feeling. The work is not unfinished, despite suggestion from contemporary critics, but instead full of potential for what could be as modernity starts to infringe on the present. Thus, the hazy, rich colours, relaxed, free flowing brush strokes, and luminous palette that depict the port of Monet’s native town make no attempt at representing the real, but instead serve as a vision of utopia.