Impression, Sunrise

A hazy orange sun hangs over the misty harbor of Le Havre at dawn, its light scattering in broken dashes across the grey-blue water where fishing boats float as dark silhouettes. Monet painted this loose, atmospheric sketch and titled it Impression, Sunrise - and a mocking critic seized on the word to ridicule the whole group, unwittingly giving Impressionism its name. Now in the Musee Marmottan in Paris, it is the painting that named a movement, the supreme example of capturing a fleeting moment of light and air rather than solid, finished form.