Impression, Sunrise Auction History

1872: Painted in Le Havre by Claude Monet; now catalogued by the Musée Marmottan Monet as inv. 4014 [1].

1874: After the First Impressionist Exhibition, acquired privately by Ernest Hoschedé with Paul Durand‑Ruel as intermediary [2].

1878: Sold at the Hoschedé liquidation sale, Hôtel Drouot (lot 55, titled “L’Impression. Soleil Couchant”) for 210 francs to Dr. Georges de Bellio [2][3].

1894: Inherited by de Bellio’s daughter Victorine and her husband Eugène Donop de Monchy [2].

1940: Gifted to the Académie des Beaux‑Arts for the Musée Marmottan; formal gift recorded May 23, 1940; first displayed at Marmottan in 1946 [1][2].

1985–1990: Stolen at gunpoint from the Musée Marmottan (Oct 27, 1985) and recovered in Porto‑Vecchio, Corsica (Dec 4, 1990); returned to view in 1991 [6][7].

Current status: In the collection of the Musée Marmottan Monet (Paris); works in French public museum collections are inalienable under the Code du patrimoine [1][4].

The only documented public auction for this painting occurred when Ernest Hoschedé’s collection was liquidated at Hôtel Drouot on June 6, 1878. There, under the title “L’Impression. Soleil Couchant,” it fetched just 210 francs, bought by Dr. Georges de Bellio [2][3]. Marmottan’s research characterizes this result as “barely a quarter” of the price Hoschedé had paid around 1874, a telling indicator of the Impressionists’ fragile foothold in the late‑1870s Paris market [2].

Subsequent ownership cemented its institutional fate: after de Bellio’s death, the work passed by inheritance to Victorine and Eugène Donop de Monchy and was then gifted to the Musée Marmottan Monet in 1940 [1][2]. As part of a French public museum collection, it is inalienable—French law (Code du patrimoine, art. L451‑5) prohibits its sale—so no further market transactions are possible [4]. The work’s public stature has only grown, underscored by its central role in high‑profile loans such as Musée d’Orsay’s “Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism” and the National Gallery of Art presentation in 2024–25 [5].

While this painting will not reenter the market, its 1878 price is a benchmark for the period’s resistance to Impressionism and offers a stark counterpoint to Monet’s contemporary auction performance. Monet’s record stands at $110.7 million for Meules (Sotheby’s, 2019) [8]; works from major series such as Waterloo Bridge and the Nymphéas continue to command prices in the $60–65 million range [9][10], and a Poplars canvas achieved $42.96 million in 2025 [11]. The trajectory from a 210‑franc Drouot result to nine‑figure prices encapsulates the transformation of taste, scholarship, and collector demand around Impressionism. In this context, Impression, Sunrise functions as both a market touchstone and a museum icon: its singular 1878 auction is historically instructive, and its later inalienable status affirms its cultural primacy over market availability [2][4][5][8][9][10][11].