“Nothing will stop the sun from rising again, not even on the darkest night. Because beyond the black curtain of the night there is a dawn that awaits us”

Impression, soleil levant undoubtedly represents the dawn of impressionism: when in 1874 it was exhibited for the first time as part of the exhibition organized by the revolutionary “Société anonyme des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs” at the studio of the photographer Nadar, nothing short of a stir.

Indeed, it was his merit that the critic Louis Leroy called it “impressionists” that group of artists gathered there, with a negative meaning deriving from the fact that the work differed from the traditional manner, characterized by that sense of approximation in the rendering of the subject, precisely creating a kind of impression.

Claude Monet, Impression, soleil levant, 1872 – Courtesy Musée Marmottan Monet

The name dictated by contempt thus officially gave name and life to one of the most beloved movements in the history of art, and Monet’s work that sanctions this event could not be more representative.

The port of Le Havre and its boats are shrouded in dense fog and, casting its reddish reflection on the water, the sun rises. Nothing is clear and defined, precisely due to the fact that Monet wants to convey to us the sensations he feels, the impressions of him contemplating this moment.

In his painting en plein air, what is imposed is subjectivity, no longer that objective representation of reality that characterized the art just before: for the protagonists of the movement, the dark night of Realism is overcome by the dawn of Impressionism, and in the same way after every night, every difficulty, every dark moment, the sun will always rise again