On 13 November 1872, from the window of his hotel in Le Havre, Claude Monet painted a view of the port through the mist. Exhibited two years later under the title Impression, soleil levant [Impression, Sunrise] (1872, Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet), the work inspired critic Louis Leroy to coin the term “Impressionist”, thus giving a name to the group formed by Monet and his friends.

In 2022, the Musée Marmottan Monet, in collaboration with the Museum Barberini celebrates the 150th anniversary of, Impression, soleil levant [Impression, Sunrise] and pays tribute to it through the exhibition “Facing the Sun”, presented in Paris from 21 September 2022 to 29 January 2023 and in Potsdam, from 25 February to 11 June 2023 under the title “Sonne. Die Quelle des Lichts in der Kunst”.

Albrecht Dürer, Luca Giordano, Pierre-Paul Rubens, Claude Gellée known as “Le Lorrain”, Joseph Vernet, Mallord William Turner, Gaspar David Friedrich, Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin, Camille Pissarro, Paul Signac, André Derain, Maurice Denis, Félix Vallotton, Laurits Tuxen, Edvard Munch, Otto Dix, Otto Freundlich, Sonia Delaunay, Wladimir Baranov-Rossiné, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Otto Piene, Gérard Fromanger, and Vicky Colombet are just some of the masters featured in this exhibition, in honour of the most illustrious sunrise ever known in art history.

Curators : Marianne MATHIEU, Scientific Director of the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris
and Dr Michael PHILIPP Chief Curator at the Museum Barberini, Potsdam

An exhibition by the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris and the Museum Barberini, Potsdam