Displayed at · 1940
Musée Marmottan Monet
Given by Eugène and Victorine Donop de Monchy on 23 May 1940 (museum notice 4014); on display since, apart from the 1985–1990 theft interval.
Painting
Impression, Sunrise
by Claude Monet
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.
- 1872
- Oil on canvas
About Claude Monet
The harbor at dawn
In November 1872 Claude Monet was staying at the Hôtel de l'Amirauté in Le Havre, the port town where he had grown up. From his window he painted the view southeast across the outer harbor in the early morning: quays, cranes, smokestacks, and masts dissolved in mist, two small rowboats dark in the foreground, and an orange sun that the museum's notice records was added in the final touches.
The canvas is modest — 50 by 65 centimetres — and rapidly worked, closer to what the period called a sketch than to a finished marine painting. It is signed at lower left 'Claude Monet,' with the date '72' added later.
How a title became a movement
The painting hung in the first independent exhibition of April 1874, organized by Monet and his allies in the photographer Nadar's former studio on the boulevard des Capucines. Asked for a title for the catalogue, Monet chose 'Impression' — the painters' word, the museum notes, for a rapidly captured atmospheric effect rather than a finished view.
The critic Louis Leroy took the word and ran it through a satirical review in Le Charivari on 25 April 1874, under the heading 'The Exhibition of the Impressionists.' The name was meant to wound. It survived its author: the critic Jules Castagnary soon used 'Impressionists' without malice, and some of the group adopted the label themselves.
From the de Bellio family to the Marmottan
The painting passed into the collection of Doctor Georges de Bellio and from him to his daughter Victorine. On 23 May 1940 she and her husband Eugène Donop de Monchy gave it to the Musée Marmottan — the gift that turned a museum of Napoleonic decorative arts toward Impressionism. Ten more canvases from the family collection followed by 1947, and the painting has hung there since, with one interruption.
The theft of 1985 and the recovery
At about 10:15 on the morning of 27 October 1985, five masked men entered the museum during opening hours, held the visitors and guards at gunpoint, and left roughly five minutes later with nine paintings: Impression, Sunrise, four other Monets, two Renoirs, and a Morisot. Wire reports at the time put the paintings' value around twenty million dollars.
The investigation ran for five years and reached organized-crime circles in Japan before ending much closer to home. In December 1990, French police recovered all nine paintings from an apartment near Porto-Vecchio, in southern Corsica, and arrested seven people. The canvases had suffered humidity damage described as minor and repairable, and after conservation treatment the painting returned to display.
Timeline
1872
Monet paints the outer harbor of Le Havre at dawn from his window at the Hôtel de l'Amirauté in November.
1874
Shown at the first independent exhibition; Louis Leroy's review of 25 April turns its title into the movement's name.
1940
Victorine and Eugène Donop de Monchy give the painting to the Musée Marmottan on 23 May.
1985
Stolen with eight other paintings in an armed robbery on 27 October.
1990
Recovered near Porto-Vecchio, Corsica, in December; returned to display after treatment.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Impression, Sunrise?
At the Musée Marmottan Monet, 2 rue Louis-Boilly, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. It has been in the museum's collection since the Donop de Monchy gift of 1940.
Did Impression, Sunrise really give Impressionism its name?
Yes. Monet titled it 'Impression' in the catalogue of the group's first independent exhibition in 1874, and the critic Louis Leroy's satirical review of 25 April 1874, 'The Exhibition of the Impressionists,' fixed the word to the group. Some of the painters later adopted the name themselves.
What does the painting show?
The outer harbor of Le Havre at dawn, seen from Monet's hotel window in November 1872: masts, cranes, and smokestacks in mist, two small boats, and an orange sun over the water.
How big is Impression, Sunrise?
50 by 65 centimetres unframed — a small canvas, considerably smaller than reproductions tend to suggest.
Was Impression, Sunrise ever stolen?
Yes. Five armed men took it and eight other paintings from the Marmottan on 27 October 1985. All nine were recovered near Porto-Vecchio, Corsica, in December 1990 and returned to display after conservation treatment.
When did Monet paint it?
In November 1872, according to the museum. The '72' beside the signature was added later, and the painting was first shown publicly in April 1874.
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