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

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Oil painting self-portrait by Judith Leyster showing her seated at an easel, smiling at the viewer while holding a paintbrush and palette, with a violinist painting on the canvas beside her. — Western painting *Self-Portrait*, oil on canvas by Judith Leyster, c. 1630; in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The artistic movement known as Impressionism derives its name from Claude Monet's 1872 painting, Impression, Sunrise.12

When the painting was first displayed at an independent exhibition in 1874, it drew criticism for its loose, sketchlike quality and lack of defined forms, which broke significantly from the traditional, polished standards of the time. In a review for the satirical magazine Le Charivari, the critic Louis Leroy mockingly dubbed the exhibition "The Exhibition of the Impressionists," using the title of Monet’s work to disparage the group's unconventional style.12

Despite the intended derision, the artists associated with the movement eventually adopted the term with pride. The name captured their shared commitment to recording the transient effects of light and color through spontaneous, visible brushwork rather than the rigid, academic techniques favored by the state-run Salon.12