In April 1874 a group of young artists defied the official Paris
Salon by setting up their own independent exhibition. Held at 35
Boulevard des Capucines, it became known as the first
âImpressionistâ exhibition, comprising works by Claude Monet,
Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Paul
CĂ©zanne, Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot. It was there that
Monet exhibited his harbour scene, Impression: Sunrise, which
was to give the movement its name. The picture received adverse
criticism, due to its sketchy handling and apparent lack of
subject. One writer declared that it looked as if it had been
'executed by the infantile hand of a school child'. The
Impressionists came together as a group in Paris during the
1860s. In 1862 Monet moved to the capital from Le Havre and took
lessons at the AcadĂ©mie Suisse, where he encountered Pissarro
and CĂ©zanne. He also attended the studio of the academician
Charles Gleyre, where he met FrĂ©dĂ©ric Bazille, Renoir and
Sisley. These four travelled to the Forest o