How did Louis Leroy give Impressionism its name?

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Painting by Gustave Courbet showing the artist at his easel in a crowded studio, surrounded by figures including a nude model, onlookers, and a child with a white dog. — Art criticism *The Painter's Studio*, oil on canvas by Gustave Courbet, 1854–55, in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France.

In the context of art criticism, the term "Impressionism" originated as a derisive label coined by the journalist Louis Leroy in 1874.1

Writing for the satirical magazine Le Charivari, Leroy used the title of Claude Monet's 1872 painting, Impression, Sunrise, to mock the collective of artists who had organized an independent exhibition that year. By focusing on the word "Impression" from Monet's work, Leroy intended to disparage the group's departure from traditional academic standards, suggesting their paintings were merely unfinished sketches rather than completed works of art. Despite the critic's intent to ridicule the movement, the name was eventually adopted by the artists themselves.12