A native of the city, he spent much of his youth in the area, and both his father and uncle derived their livelihoods from commercial activities related to the port. Le Havre was a deeply personal site for Monet. Still enshrouded in the thick, low-lying fog that Monet has denoted through broad, fluid strokes of purple and blue, the ships’ superstructures are suggested only by a few vertical, horizontal, and diagonal brushstrokes, tentatively scumbled. One can distinguish numerous other sailing ships farther back on the opposite, south, side of the harbor. Visible on the north side in the near left is the ghostly form of a steamboat, the smoke from its main funnel partially obscuring the masts and rigging of the clipper ship behind. Farther behind one can vaguely discern the ships still moored along the quays of Le Havre’s outer harbor, or avant port. Off to the right is a small skiff with three more figures, mere quavering dabs of paint. In the foreground appears the silhouette of a small sailing vessel, with two men on deck, quietly setting out to sea. Having yet to fully penetrate and dispel the early morning mist, the light of the rising sun to the east is palely reflected in the pinks, yellows, and oranges of the sky above and water below, which glimmers against the cool, muffled blues, purples, and greens that dominate and unify the scene.

Painted in the spring of 1873, it offers an easterly view toward the rising sun. 1), to which the naming of the Impressionist movement is legendarily credited, this picture of the French port of Le Havre is among the most radically sketchlike paintings of Monet’s early career. Like its more famous cousin Impression, Sunrise ( fig.

Impression Sunrise claude monet