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he style and sensibilities of Impressionist painter Claude Monet emerged from the ocean. He is arguably most famous for his paintings of the ponds and water lilies that dotted his verdant home in landlocked Giverny, but Impression, Sunrise, the painting that christened an artistic movement, depicted the bustling port of the seaside town of Le Havre in Normandy. Monet was raised from the age of five in Le Havre, and it was there that he met Eugène Boudin, a marine painter who would teach the young artist to use oils and paint outdoors. The eager student would paint numerous seascapes throughout his robust career, and Monet once famously said: “It is extraordinary to see the sea; what a spectacle! She is so unfettered that one wonders whether it is possible that she again become calm.” Monet’s contemporaries, such as Vincent van Gogh and ...
