The Museum at Le Havre

Le Havre was the port town where Monet grew up, and in 1873 he came back to paint its working harbour. He set his easel on the wall of the inner basin, looking across the water at the city's museum of fine arts and public library, a grand building put up in 1845. This is almost the same spot and season that produced 'Impression, Sunrise', the small harbour view whose title a critic borrowed, half in mockery, to coin the word Impressionism. You can see why the label stuck. The building is barely drawn, the boats are quick dashes, and the whole scene is carried by broken strokes of greyish blue and brown under a flat northern sky, with a little warm orange to catch the light on the water.