Le Havre: the Birth Place of Impressionism

“These would-be artists call themselves revolutionaries, “Impressionists”. They take a piece of canvas, colour and brush, daub a few patches of paint on it at random, and sign the whole thing with their name. It is a delusion of the same kind as if the inmates of Bedlam picked up stones from the wayside and imagined they had found diamonds.” Anonymous 1876

Anyone with a passing interest in Western art and its history knows what ‘Impressionism’ is: it is a movement that originated in France in the 1860s where artists were no longer concerned with giving a factual image of a scene but rather they wished to capture the visual impression made by a scene. Artists like Edouard Manet and Claude Monet began by suggesting that painters should be painting their subjects as they see them, not in the confines of their studios with limited or monotonous sources of light.

These paintings caused a bit of a stir, as the quote above from an anonymous critic shows. In fact the establishment was outraged and prevented these new paintings being exhibited in the usual exhibitions. In 1874 Manet, Monet and others got together and organised their own exhibition in a sympathetic photographer’s studio.

The catalogue described one painting by Monet as “Impression, soleil levant” (Impression: sunrise). This is the painting, pictured above and now in the Musée Marmottan – Paris, of the port of Le Havre’s as seen by Monet through the early morning mists. One of the art critics of the time jumped on this title and labelled the group of artists ‘the impressionists’. The rest, as they say, is history.

Today, Le Havre is a wonderful place to visit, and the city has strong connections with the Impressionists. There are many events planned as part of the Normandie Impressionniste 2010 festival.