Painting
Impression, Sunrise
Claude Monet's 1872 view of the Le Havre harbor at dawn, whose catalogue title at the first independent exhibition of 1874 gave Impressionism its name. It hangs at the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris.
- Painter
Claude Monet
Impressionist painter whose late Water Lilies cycle fills the Orangerie's two oval rooms — a gift to France offered the day after the 1918 Armistice and installed to his design.
In images
Details
- 1840–1926
- 1840
- Paris
- 1926
- Giverny
- French
- Painter
About Claude Monet
Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise, shown at the first independent exhibition of 1874, handed the critics the word Impressionism. Half a century later his Water Lilies cycle — offered to France through Georges Clemenceau the day after the 1918 Armistice — ended the story in two oval rooms he specified himself.
This page follows the arc the museum needs: the 1874 exhibition, Giverny and the water garden, the gift, and the long afterlife of the late work at the Musée de l'Orangerie.
The exhibition of 1874
Monet was born in Paris in 1840 and made his reputation refusing its official machinery. In April 1874 he and his allies — organized as the Société anonyme des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs — opened their own exhibition in the former studio of the photographer Nadar on the boulevard des Capucines, bypassing the Salon jury entirely. The critic Louis Leroy fixed on Monet's Impression, Sunrise and accused it of being a sketch, an 'impression,' not a painting. The insult stuck to the whole group.
The independents held eight exhibitions between 1874 and 1886, and Monet's part in them was steady rather than constant. He moved out of Paris in stages — Argenteuil, Vétheuil, Poissy — painting the suburbs the railway had opened, with the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel as the group's principal backer through years when almost nothing sold.
Giverny and the water garden
In 1883 the moves ended at Giverny, a village in Normandy at the border of the Île-de-France. His house and gardens became gathering places for friends — Manet and Renoir painted alongside their host — and the garden he built there became the last great subject. He created a water garden on the property, and from the late 1890s the pond, its willows, and its water lilies displaced nearly everything else from his easel.
The idea of the panels came early. In 1909 he told the critic Gustave Geffroy that he wanted to see the water-lily theme 'carried along the walls.' In June 1914 he wrote that he was 'embarking on a great project,' and in 1916 he had a huge third studio built at Giverny, with roof windows for natural light, to hold canvases two meters tall and four wide.
The gift
On 12 November 1918, the day after the Armistice, Monet wrote to his old friend Georges Clemenceau:
I am on the verge of finishing two decorative panels which I want to sign on Victory Day, and am writing to ask you if they could be offered to the State with you acting as intermediary.
The friendship behind the letter was long and oddly shaped: they had met in 1860, lost touch, and found each other again after 1908, when Clemenceau bought a property near Giverny. It was Clemenceau who pushed the offer outward — from two panels to twelve in the 1920 agreement, then to nineteen in the contract signed on 12 April 1922.
Monet then nearly unmade the gift. He reworked the panels continually, destroyed some outright, and asked to keep them 'until his death.' Part of the trouble was his eyes: by 1922 the ophthalmologist Charles Coutela recorded that the right eye perceived only light, and Clemenceau pressed him through two operations on it in early 1923. The surgery brought its own torments — he complained of seeing everything with a bluish tint, and, seeing his recent work in true color again, destroyed canvases from the cataract years.
The installation, though, he controlled to the centimeter, working with the architect Camille Lefèvre and with Clemenceau's support: eight compositions assembled from panels, all 1.97 meters high, laid out almost seamlessly across the curved walls of two egg-shaped rooms lit from above, sunrise tones to the east and sunset to the west. Monet died at Giverny in 1926, at eighty-six, with Clemenceau at his bedside. The rooms opened at the Orangerie a few months later, in 1927, exactly as he had specified.
The second life of the Water Lilies
The rooms opened into indifference. Impressionism read as yesterday's painting in 1927, and the public stayed away from the Orangerie's ensemble for decades. The revaluation came from New York: in 1952 the painter André Masson called the rooms 'the Sixtine Chapel of Impressionism,' collectors began buying the late canvases still in the studio, and in 1955 the Museum of Modern Art purchased and displayed one of the great paintings. Critics drew the formal line from the late Monet to Pollock, Rothko, Newman, and Still.
The judgment has not moved since. The two oval rooms remain the reason the Musée de l'Orangerie exists in its present form, and the collection assembled by the dealer Paul Guillaume hangs a floor below them.
Life events
Born in Paris on 14 November.
Shows Impression, Sunrise at the first independent exhibition on the boulevard des Capucines; Louis Leroy's mockery of the title names Impressionism.
Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872 (Musée Marmottan Monet). Shown at the first independent exhibition in 1874, its title gave the movement its name. Settles at Giverny after moves to Argenteuil, Vétheuil, and Poissy; the house and gardens become gathering places for painter friends.
Tells Gustave Geffroy he wants to see the water-lily theme 'carried along the walls.'
Writes that he is 'embarking on a great project'; the huge third studio, lit by roof windows, is built at Giverny in 1916.
On 12 November, the day after the Armistice, offers decorative panels to France through Clemenceau.
Signs the donation contract on 12 April: nineteen panels, up from the two first offered. Coutela records his right eye reduced to perceiving light.
Monet in the third Giverny studio with Water Lilies panels, photographed by Pierre Choumoff in the early 1920s. Two operations on the right eye. He struggles with bluish vision afterward and destroys canvases painted during the cataract years.
Dies at Giverny in December, at eighty-six.
The Water Lilies rooms open at the Orangerie, installed to his design: eight compositions across two oval rooms.
Claude Monet, The Water Lilies: Setting Sun, one of the eight compositions in the Orangerie's two oval rooms. André Masson calls the rooms 'the Sixtine Chapel of Impressionism' as the revaluation of the late work begins.
The Museum of Modern Art purchases and displays one of the great late paintings; critics link late Monet to Abstract Expressionism.
Selected works
People they knew
Georges Clemenceau
- Statesman
Met · 1860
The Orangerie's account: they met in 1860, lost touch, and met again after 1908, when Clemenceau bought a property near Giverny. Clemenceau received the Armistice-day offer of the Water Lilies, pushed the donation to its 1922 contract, and pressed Monet through the cataract operations that let him finish.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Painter
- Sculptor
Met
A friendship of the movement's core: the Met records Renoir among the friends who gathered at Monet's homes and gardens and often painted alongside their host.
Collaborated with · 1869
In September 1869 the two painted side by side at La Grenouillère, a bathing and boating spot on the Seine, working the same views in quick broken strokes. The Met credits the campaign with catalyzing the Impressionist aesthetic; the Nationalmuseum counts the paired canvases among the first fully Impressionist pictures.
Alfred Sisley
- Painter
Met · 1862
They met in Charles Gleyre's studio in 1862, alongside Renoir and Bazille — the Orsay's account of the movement's student generation.
Édouard Manet
- Painter
Met
The Met places Manet among the friends who gathered at Monet's homes and gardens and often painted alongside their host.
Frédéric Bazille
- Painter
Met · 1862–1870
Enrolled at Gleyre's studio in 1862, where he met Monet, Renoir, and Sisley. He was killed in action on 28 November 1870; the Orsay notes that not a single Bazille hung at the 1874 exhibition his friends went on to mount.
Camille Pissarro
- Painter
Met · 1874
Named together by the Met among the founding members of the independent society whose 1874 exhibition named Impressionism. Pissarro showed in all eight of the group's exhibitions; Monet's Impression, Sunrise named the movement.
Edgar Degas
- Painter
Met · 1874
Co-founders of the independent society, per the Met's account — Degas beside Monet and Pissarro at the 1874 exhibition that earned the group its unwanted name.
Camille Lefèvre
- Architect
Collaborated with · 1922–1927
Lefèvre drew up the Orangerie's two oval Water Lilies rooms to Monet's specifications — curved walls, diffused top light, the canvases curving with the walls. The rooms opened in May 1927, months after the painter's death.
Gustave Caillebotte
- Painter
Met
Patron, fellow exhibitor, and fellow gardener. Caillebotte paid Monet's rent when it needed paying, took a studio for him near the Gare Saint-Lazare, and owned sixteen of his paintings — including three of the 1877 station pictures. Monet kept Caillebotte's oil sketch for Paris Street; Rainy Day in his bedroom at Giverny until his death, and the two traded horticultural letters and cuttings for years.
Michel Monet
- Collector
Parent of
Claude Monet's younger son and his sole heir. The paintings that stayed in the family passed to the Musée Marmottan through him.
Who they drew from
Gustave Courbet
Courbet knew the young Monet in the 1860s and encouraged him, and the scale and frankness of the Realist canvases are behind Monet's early figure paintings.
Movements
Art movement · 1874–1886
Impressionism
His Impression, Sunrise, shown at the first independent exhibition in 1874, gave the movement its name when the critic Louis Leroy used the title against it. Monet showed in the group's exhibitions and outlived the movement by four decades.
Organizations
Founded · 1918–1927
Musée de l'Orangerie
The museum in its present form exists to hold his gift: nineteen panels donated by the 1922 contract, installed as eight compositions in two oval rooms whose shape, spacing, and light he specified with the architect Camille Lefèvre.
Questions about Claude Monet
Why are Monet's Water Lilies at the Musée de l'Orangerie?
Because Monet gave them to France. He offered panels to the state through Georges Clemenceau on 12 November 1918, the day after the Armistice, and signed the donation contract in 1922. The Orangerie's two oval rooms were adapted to his specifications, and the ensemble opened in 1927, a few months after his death.
How many Water Lilies are in the Orangerie?
Eight compositions, assembled from panels and hung across the curved walls of two oval rooms. All are 1.97 meters high; the 1922 donation contract specified nineteen panels.
Did Monet design the Orangerie's oval rooms?
He set the terms of the installation — the sequence and spacing of the compositions, the curved walls, and the natural light falling from above — working with the architect Camille Lefèvre and with Clemenceau's support. Sunrise tones hang to the east, sunset to the west.
What was wrong with Monet's eyes?
Cataracts. By 1922 his right eye perceived only light, and in early 1923 he underwent two operations on it, urged on by Clemenceau. Afterward he complained of a bluish tint to his vision, and he destroyed some canvases painted during the cataract years once he could see their colors truly.
How did Claude Monet die?
He died at Giverny in December 1926, at eighty-six, with Clemenceau at his bedside. The Water Lilies rooms he had given France opened at the Orangerie a few months later.
Where can you see Monet's paintings in Paris?
The Musée de l'Orangerie holds the Water Lilies rooms, the Musée Marmottan Monet holds Impression, Sunrise and a large Monet collection, and the Musée d'Orsay holds the broad Impressionist survey. Giverny's house and gardens are open seasonally outside Paris.
Why is Monet called an Impressionist?
The word comes from his own painting. When Impression, Sunrise was shown at the independents' first exhibition in 1874, the critic Louis Leroy used its title to dismiss the whole group as makers of unfinished 'impressions.' The name outlived the insult.
Sourced claims
Associated with · 1874
Impressionism
His Impression, Sunrise, shown at the first independent exhibition in 1874, gave the movement its name when the critic Louis Leroy used the title against it. Monet showed in the group's exhibitions and outlived the movement by four decades.
Met · 1860
Georges Clemenceau
The Orangerie's account: they met in 1860, lost touch, and met again after 1908, when Clemenceau bought a property near Giverny. Clemenceau received the Armistice-day offer of the Water Lilies, pushed the donation to its 1922 contract, and pressed Monet through the cataract operations that let him finish.
Founded · 1918–1927
Musée de l'Orangerie
The museum in its present form exists to hold his gift: nineteen panels donated by the 1922 contract, installed as eight compositions in two oval rooms whose shape, spacing, and light he specified with the architect Camille Lefèvre.
Lived at · 1883–1926
Monet's House and Gardens at Giverny
Monet moved to Giverny in 1883, bought the house and garden in the autumn of 1890, and lived there until his death on 5 December 1926 — the Fondation Claude Monet's own timeline. Forty-three years, longer than every other address in his life combined.
Worked at · 1883–1926
Monet's House and Gardens at Giverny
The property was the studio as well as the home: the Fondation's timeline records a new studio built with the 1890 purchase, and the pond he dug across the road in 1893 supplied the Water Lilies — the subject of his final three decades, through the mural-scale panels donated to the Musée de l'Orangerie.
Met
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
A friendship of the movement's core: the Met records Renoir among the friends who gathered at Monet's homes and gardens and often painted alongside their host.
Met · 1862
Alfred Sisley
They met in Charles Gleyre's studio in 1862, alongside Renoir and Bazille — the Orsay's account of the movement's student generation.
Met
Édouard Manet
The Met places Manet among the friends who gathered at Monet's homes and gardens and often painted alongside their host.
Met · 1862–1870
Frédéric Bazille
Enrolled at Gleyre's studio in 1862, where he met Monet, Renoir, and Sisley. He was killed in action on 28 November 1870; the Orsay notes that not a single Bazille hung at the 1874 exhibition his friends went on to mount.
Met · 1874
Camille Pissarro
Named together by the Met among the founding members of the independent society whose 1874 exhibition named Impressionism. Pissarro showed in all eight of the group's exhibitions; Monet's Impression, Sunrise named the movement.
Met · 1874
Edgar Degas
Co-founders of the independent society, per the Met's account — Degas beside Monet and Pissarro at the 1874 exhibition that earned the group its unwanted name.
Collaborated with · 1869
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
In September 1869 the two painted side by side at La Grenouillère, a bathing and boating spot on the Seine, working the same views in quick broken strokes. The Met credits the campaign with catalyzing the Impressionist aesthetic; the Nationalmuseum counts the paired canvases among the first fully Impressionist pictures.
Collaborated with · 1922–1927
Camille Lefèvre
Lefèvre drew up the Orangerie's two oval Water Lilies rooms to Monet's specifications — curved walls, diffused top light, the canvases curving with the walls. The rooms opened in May 1927, months after the painter's death.
Influenced by
Gustave Courbet
Courbet knew the young Monet in the 1860s and encouraged him, and the scale and frankness of the Realist canvases are behind Monet's early figure paintings.
Met
Gustave Caillebotte
Patron, fellow exhibitor, and fellow gardener. Caillebotte paid Monet's rent when it needed paying, took a studio for him near the Gare Saint-Lazare, and owned sixteen of his paintings — including three of the 1877 station pictures. Monet kept Caillebotte's oil sketch for Paris Street; Rainy Day in his bedroom at Giverny until his death, and the two traded horticultural letters and cuttings for years.
Parent of
Michel Monet
Claude Monet's younger son and his sole heir. The paintings that stayed in the family passed to the Musée Marmottan through him.