Throughout the years, Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise has been celebrated as the quintessential symbol of the Impressionist Movement. This renowned work of art which illustrates a view of the port of Le Havre in north-western France is considered to be one of Monet’s “most poetic expressions” of his engagement with France’s revitalization efforts after the Franco-Prussian War.[1] Unlike other artworks of the time, the subject matter and specific painting techniques evident in Impression, Sunrise seek to transcribe the feelings initiated by a scene rather than simply rendering the details of a particular landscape. This act of expressing an individual’s perception of nature was a key characteristic and goal of Impressionist art, and is …show more content…

Pochades, the fourth step, were viewed as draft works that were abrupt but performed with more care and attention than an esquisse. Monet explained his fifth stage of a painting as anetude, a work painted entirely outside but not deemed a finished painting. Closely related to etudes wereimpressions, the step that Impression, Sunrise refers to. Impressions were stages of a painting used to capture natural effects and the emotions radiated by an outdoor scene. The tableau was the last stage of the painting process and considered the final product which needed no other preparations.
Over time, Monet’s painting techniques evolved and matured from the type he implemented in Impression, Sunrise to that seen in his later, larger paintings such as his water lilies. One area in which he developed his technique was pigment mixture. While Impression, Sunrise displays several different tones of color, Monet’s later works exhibit a wider variety of color juxtaposed against one another. Monet would come to use layer upon layer of paint in his future paintings. He applied many layers to succeed in creating the perfect combination of pigment, but also to cover undesired portions when he changed