Monet exhibited this painting at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. The works were received with disgust, and the critic M. Louis Leroy coined the then-derogatory term "Impressionism."

Light & Color
Depicting the effects
of natural light

En Plein Air
Painting outdoors

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872, oil on canvas, 1′ 7″ x 2′ 1″, Musée Marmottan Monet.

The Impressionists preferred working outdoors and quickly capture what they saw. In this painting, Monet's fashionable wife also embodies the painters' interest in the lifestyle of the bourgeoisie- the French new middle class.

Bourgeoisie
A new upper-middle class

En Plein Air
Painting outdoors

Claude Monet, Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875, oil on canvas, 3′ 3″ x 2′ 8″, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Monet produced about a dozen paintings of Gare Saint-Lazare railway station in Paris, showcasing his tendency to work outdoors, capture the effects of light and color, and depict the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution.

Light & Color
Depicting the effects
of natural light

En Plein Air
Painting outdoors

Industrial Revolution
New manufacturing processes

Claude Monet, The Gare Saint-Lazare (or Interior View of the Gare Saint-Lazare, the Auteuil Line), 1877, oil on canvas, 75 x 104 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

The series of Rouen Cathedral paintings embody the Impessionists' preference to work outdoors and quickly capture the effects of light and color at different moments.

Light & Color
Depicting the effects
of natural light

En Plein Air
Painting outdoors

Claude Monet, Rouen Cathedral, Facade (sunset), harmonie in gold and blue, 1892-1894, oil on canvas, 100 cm (39.3 in) x 65 cm (25.5 in), Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.