CANBERRA.- For the first time ever, Australian audiences have the opportunity to see Claude Monet’s iconic masterpiece, Impression, sunrise – the highlight of the National Gallery of Australia’s 2019 winter exhibition and the painting that gave Impressionism its name.

Impression, sunrise, painted in 1872, shows a young Monet in his pioneering development as an artist. From his hotel window, he captures a passing moment at the harbour in Le Havre – an impression of the rising sun over the working port. In time, it changed the way the world viewed art.

With a desire to bring the surrounding landscape to life, Monet used quick brushstrokes and well-chosen colour to convey the changing atmosphere, which he believed gave “subjects their true value”.

Visitors will experience a remarkable collection of paintings by Monet that both defined the Impressionist movement and inspired a generation of French painters, who abandoned their studios for the world outside. Many of these masterpieces are drawn from the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris and are rarely loaned, even within the French capital.

Monet: Impression Sunrise – curated by the Scientific Director of the Musée Marmottan Monet, Marianne Mathieu – takes visitors on a journey through Monet’s exploration of light, his influential masterpiece that marked the dawn of Impressionism, to his study of nature, culminating with his most loved waterlily series.

“Discover the story behind Monet’s ground-breaking masterpiece – the artists that influenced him and learn how Impression, sunrise inspired a movement,” said Nick Mitzevich, Director of the National Gallery of Australia. “Monet was a radical. We see him at a pivotal moment in his career, a period which redefined art.”

Monet’s early influences are also featured, including an extraordinary group of atmospheric works by Turner, Delacroix, Courbet and Whistler, and his Impressionist contemporaries Sisley and Morisot – one of the few women of the Impressionist movement.

The Musée Marmottan Monet is home to the largest collection of artworks by Monet in the world, including more than 100 paintings donated by Michel Monet, the artist’s son.

“We are pleased to share these iconic works and bring a new lens to the story of Impressionism for all Australians. I want people to see the beauty of Impression, sunrise,” Ms Mathieu said.

“It is a privilege to collaborate with the Musée Marmottan Monet, with its unsurpassed Monet collection, and to bring these masterpieces to Australia for the first time,” Mr Mitzevich said.

The exhibition, organised by the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris in association with the National Gallery of Australia and Art Exhibitions Australia, consists of 60 works and includes generous loans from the Musée Marmottan Monet, the Tate, London, other French institutions, as well as institutional and private collections in the USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand.