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How did Monet's Impression: Sunrise help give Impressionism its name?

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van de Velde, Adriaen: River Landscape in the Late Afternoon — Landscape painting *River Landscape in the Late Afternoon*, oil on canvas by Adriaen van de Velde, 1663; in a private collection.

Claude Monet’s 1872 painting Impression, Sunrise provided the name for the Impressionist movement through a critical review of the group's first independent exhibition in 1874.12

The journalist Louis Leroy, writing for the satirical magazine Le Charivari, used the title of Monet’s work to mock the artists' style. Leroy condemned the painting for its sketchlike quality and loose, broken brushwork, which he felt failed to define its subject matter properly. In a derogatory attempt to characterize the entire exhibition as unfinished or merely a collection of impressions rather than serious art, he dubbed the group "The Exhibition of the Impressionists".21

Despite the intended insult, the members of the group eventually adopted the term "Impressionists" with pride. The name became a defining label for the movement, reflecting their shared commitment to capturing the fleeting effects of light and color through a revolutionary, subjective approach that broke away from the rigid conventions of traditional academic painting.12