The exact time of birth of impressionism is calculated

SAN MARCOS. Astrophysicist Donald Olson calculated the exact time when Monet painted his first painting in a new style, later called “impressionism”.

Now the birth of impressionism can be dated at 7:35 a.m. on November 13, 1872. It is this time, according to Olson’s calculations, shown on Claude Monet’s canvas “Impression. Sunrise ”(Impression, Soleil Levant), which marked the beginning of a new trend in painting and even gave it a name. Evidence from a professor of astrophysics research will be presented next month at an exhibition at the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, which owns the painting. The exhibition runs from September 18 to January 18, 2015.

Claude Monet - Impression. Sunrise (1872)

Until now, it was unclear in which year, 1872 or 1873, the canvas was painted. 1872 is indicated next to Monet’s signature in the picture, but in the catalog-resonator of the Wildenstein gallery the picture is dated 1873 (on the basis that the artist allegedly worked in Le Havre in the spring of 1873). The nebula of the landscape made it difficult to determine the terrain, but helped establish the exact date.

Donald Olson, professor of astrophysics at the University of Texas (Texas State University, San Marcos), set out to determine the hotel and even the room the artist stayed in while painting “Impression. Sunrise". Olson concluded that the painter was painting, sitting on the balcony of the third floor of the Hotel d’Amirauté au Havre, located on Grand Quai 45.

Some experts believed that the painting depicts a sunset, because at an auction in 1878 the painting was exhibited under the title “Impression. The Setting Sun ”(Impression: Soleil Couchant). However, Olson proved that the sun on the canvas is geographically located in the east, that is, it rises. He also calculated that the position of the celestial body, as shown by the artist in the picture, happens only twice a year: in mid-November and late January. The sun is depicted two to three degrees above the horizon, which corresponds to 20-30 minutes after sunrise.

Then Olson began to study sea level, as large ships can pass to Le Havre only for three to four hours at high tide. Given the position of the sun and the tide, the astrophysicist deduced 19 estimated dates in 1872 and 1873, in which the canvas could be written.

The next step in solving the rebus was to study meteorological records and exclude from the list the sunny days on which morning fog would not be possible. So Olsen received 6 dates: January 21 and 22, 1872, November 13 and 15, 1872, and January 25 and 26, 1873.

Next, the professor focused on pillars of smoke on the left side of the picture, which rise into the sky with a right bias. Meteorological reports show that this direction of the wind took place only on two of the six dates, November 13, 1872 and January 25, 1873.

The final factor is a study by Geraldine Lefebre, curator at the Musée d’Art Moderne André Malraux Museum of Modern Art in Le Havre. She is convinced that the year indicated in the picture by Monet himself (1872) is correct, since, based on the available information about the artist’s movements, in January 1873 he could not be in Le Havre. This means that the work is “Impression. Sunrise ”was written on November 13, 1872, at 7:35 a.m.

All this, of course, is based on the assumption that Monet accurately conveyed a certain point in time in the work. To prove this, Professor Olson cites description of the picture artist reliably conveying the topography of the port. Studies of the work suggest that it was written quickly, one morning, which was the main characteristic of the new style of painting.

Monet showed “Impression. Sunrise ”in Paris at the“ Exhibition of the Les Miserables ”, which opened on April 15, 1874 and went down in history as the first exhibition of the Impressionists. The name of the new style was invented by the critic Louis Leroy, who titled his caustic feuilleton about the event and the artists who participated in it. Now, millions of art lovers admire impressionism, and the painting that gave the name to this movement invariably attracts huge crowds of visitors to the Marmottan-Monet museum, which bought the canvas in 1940.

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru