This publication traces the story of the artistic influences on Monet leading up to the creation of his groundbreaking painting 'Impression, sunrise' in 1872. Centred around this key work that spurned the movement's name, for the first time Australian audiences will see Monet's paintings in the context of works that shaped the fledgling artist into the leader of Impressionism. The exhibition demonstrates the influence of English landscapists, such as JMW Turner and Richard Parkes Bonington, the French Barbizon School and Realist artists working in the decades before Monet including Charles Daubigny, Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, as well as Eugène Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind, who worked directly with Monet, mentoring him and encouraging him to broaden his artistic approach.