The term Impressionism was coined precisely on this occasion, used negatively by the critic Louis Leroy in the Charivari magazine, in reference to one of the works presented by Monet: Impression, Sunrise. The artwork, created in 1872, depicts the port of Le Havre enveloped by the lights of dawn and a faint mist that barely allows the masts of moored boats and the silhouettes of chimneys and port facilities to be glimpsed. What captures the observer’s gaze is the sun, represented as a simple red dot reflecting on the rippled water, radiating its warm light into the sky and the surrounding atmosphere, characterized instead by a cold, bluish color choice.
Monet’s stylistic choice deviates from any intention of realism, with the sole objective being the study and transposition into pictorial form of color, light, and reflections. The subject represented is the Impression, not the port of Le Havre. The eyes of the first observers are not accustomed to such a pure use of color and such strong luministic effects, accustomed by academic teaching to a dark and “filtered” palette. The drawing is relegated to the background, almost absent here, to the extent that the painting was described by Leroy as “less finished than the first stage of printing wallpaper,” consisting only of blotches that provide the viewer with an image that is not completely readable overall.