My son Luke and I like to go down by the river and watch the sunset. We often take our dog and walk the path at Croton Landing Park on the banks of the Hudson River, but sometimes we stop over by the nearby marina and enjoy the sunset from there. This photograph was taken in early June of this year. It was a hazy, humid day with lots of intermittent clouds breaking up just enough to get a decent sunset. The scene had a dreamy, misty quality, and everything looked soft in the warm light of the slanted rays of the sun — as if the landscape were painted in watercolors or oils. As the sun sank toward the horizon, it dipped below a bank of clouds — a glowing orange orb sending rays streaming skyward. The water beautifully reflected the golden and orange glow of the setting sun. There was a quiet and peaceful stillness by the Hudson as Luke and I watched together, and I snapped a few pictures. 

When I looked at the pictures later, I noticed that there was something oddly familiar about the scene. To me, this photograph itself looked very much like a painting. An Impressionist painting, to be specific. I was thinking Monet, so I did a bit of research and found the painting that my photograph reminded me of. It’s called Impression, Sunrise and depicts a scene in the port of Le Havre on a hazy, misty morning that casts a pale blue over the water, with a deep orange sun sending its rays streaming and reflecting off the harbor. This piece was painted in 1872 by Claude Monet in Le Havre, France, from Hôtel de l’Amirauté. It’s actually the painting that gave the Impressionist movement its name. 

In comparing my photograph to Impression, Sunrise — painted more than a century earlier — I was struck by the similarities. The theme and subjects of both pieces, the soft blues, oranges and yellows layered together in the hazy atmosphere, the angle of the light, the silhouettes of the boats, and the glowing orange ball of a sun hanging over it all and reflecting on the water. Check out how the sun sits in nearly the same spot in both my picture and Monet’s painting, the way the clouds glow orange and yellow across the top left and center of both, and those soft hazy blues and boat silhouettes? Total Monet vibes! As I compared the two, I thought: how cool is it that Impression, Sunrise and my little photo have so many connections across two different types of media, two countries, two people generations apart — both mesmerized by the scene before them — and across the time span of 153 years? And purely by chance! But here they are, reflecting each other across time, just as the warm glow of the sun reflects upon the water. It kind of makes me wonder what Monet would think of my photo.

If you’d like to see more of my Sunsets and Hudson River photos, please visit my Sunsets Gallery, Reflections Gallery and Colorless Color and Black & White Gallery.