You may have heard of a little movement called “Impressionism,” which grabbed Paris by the baguette in the late 19th century.

Funny story behind the name “Impressionism”: It all started when Claude Monet took his easel and canvas outside and painted a couple of boats in the sunset. Lo and behold…a movement is born! 

Well, it doesn’t just boil down to Monet daubing bits of broken colour on his canvas…not quite. It was a mean art critic named Louis Leroy who saw the painting in 1874 and quilled down these harsh words: “Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.” Rude. But it gets worse…the critic dubbed this painting and all others like it to be mere “impressions” because the paint was so sketchily applied and the works were so unfinished. It was this that led Monet and his rebel contemporaries to be labeled Impressionists. Dunno how the critic would feel if he were alive today and saw how his acid quill had made an addition so epic to art history. 

In 2014, a nerdy professor over in Texas managed to figure out the exact time at which the painting was made. It was 7:35 a.m., in case you’re wondering. The impressionist emblem has long been a much-coveted object by art thieves, and the painting was stolen in 1985 in an armed robbery, along with Renoir’s Bathers and several more. Apparently, the gunmen leading the heist left the guards trembling with mortal fear. Makes sense…if you’re going to steal some priceless art, make sure you scare the bejesus out of everyone to cover up your tracks. A Japanese criminal mastermind who went by the name Shuinichi Fujikama was the brains behind the operation. Turns out he couldn’t hold on to these babies because in 1991, Monet’s pivotal piece was discovered in Corsica. And we’re happy to say that the work is back in its Museumly place, undamaged and unharmed aside from some yellowed overtones on the varnish that have been removed by superheroes aka restoration experts.