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Painted in 1872, Impression, Sunrise was one of nine oil paintings that Monet included in the first Impressionist exhibit in Paris. The exhibition of the Société Anonyme des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs was held April 15 through May 15, 1874.

The painting is of the harbor of Le Havre, the solitary figures in the boats bob on the waves. The painting was completed out-of-doors, an innovation of the Impressionists, who believed there was more energy and truth expressed in painting "en plein air" (out of doors), than could be captured in anything completed in the studio.

This painting was the inadvertant baptizer of the Impressionist movement. M. Louis Leroy, a critic for one of the local papers, wrote a scathing review of the exhibition and blasted this painting in particular. He sarcastically wrote, "What freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that marine." He published his review under the title "Exhibition of the Impressionists". The term was rapidly accepted by the art establishment and warmly embraced by the Impressionists themselves.