Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot was a French painter, printmaker and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists.
Paintings by Berthe Morisot
In a Park (1874)
In a Park is a pastel painting on paper mounted on cardboard, executed c. 1874 by French artist Berthe Morisot. It is held at the Petit Palais in Paris.
The painting depicts a young woman in a leisure time in a park with two little girls and a dog. The woman, dressed in black and with a hat, is seated in the foreground in a field of long grass, holding a reclined child, while her dog sits in front of them. A net used to catch butterflies lies at her left. In the middle distance stands a small girl holding her straw hat, and in the background are trees.
Summer's Day (1879)
Summer's Day (French: Jour d'eté) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot, created in 1879. The painting depicts two women seated in a row boat, and was painted in the Bois de Boulogne. It is held at the National Gallery, in London.
During the winter of 1878–1879, Morisot had her first child, Julie. The following summer, she walked every day with Julie and her nurse in the Bois de Boulogne. After a long period spent indoors, it gave her the wish to start painting outdoors again. However, she did not want to leave her child alone with her nanny for long periods of time. Finally, she found a balance between her maternal duty and her wish to resume her painting, by bringing her models to the park, so she could work there and be with Julie at the same time.
The Cradle (Morisot) (1872)
The Cradle is an oil on canvas painting by the French Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot, executed in 1872. It is on display at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Morisot painted her sister Edma Portillon, who is watching over her sleeping daughter Blanche. The painting was exhibited for the first time in the First Impressionist Exhibition, opened on April 15, 1874, in the former studio of the photographer Nadar, on the Parisian Boulevard des Capucines. Although some critics praised the painting for its grace and beauty, it did not attract much interest and Morisot failed to sell it. Morisot had set the price at 800 francs. The work remained subsequently in the family collection, passing into the hands of Blanche Portillon, the painter's niece and model of the sleeping baby. In 1930 it was acquired by the Louvre Museum. Between 1947 and 1986, it was exhibited at the Jeu de Paume, located in the Jardin des Tuileries and owned by the Louvre, where the main works of impressionism were brought together. After the creation of the Musée d'Orsay, it was moved there.
The Psyche Mirror (1876)
The Psyche Mirror, original French title La Psyché, is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist Berthe Morisot, created in 1876. The painting links the theme of a woman making her toilet with the mythical motif of Psyche. The work is held in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, in Madrid.
Women in their toilets were often the subject of Morisot's paintings. Four of the eight paintings that she made in 1876 depicted that theme, including The Psyche Mirror. She exhibited the work, together with Young Woman Powdering Her Face (1876), at the third Impressionist exhibition, in 1877. The second painting was purchased during the exhibition by the collector and patron Ernest Hoschedé. When it was later auctioned, American painter Mary Cassatt, who felt a strong affinity with Morisot's themes and style, bought it.
The Harbor at Lorient (1869)
The Harbor at Lorient is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Berthe Morisot, executed in 1869. The painting has the dimensions of 43 by 72 cm. It is held at the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C.
Morisot traveled to Brittany several times in the years preceding the creation of this work. Since the arrival of the railway, the region welcomed painters to Pont-Aven, mainly during summer, and Morisot went there, as well as the nearby towns Douarnenez and Quimperlé in 1866 and 1867.
Young Girl in a Park (1893)
Young Girl in a Park is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Berthe Morisot, created between 1888 and 1893. It has the dimensions of 90 by 81 cm. It is held at the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse.
This canvas, in an almost square format, is a portrait of a young girl named Jeanne-Marie, who also would pose for Julie Manet, the artist's daughter. Morisot began this work in 1888 but quickly abandoned it. She waited until 1893 to return to it and complete it, two years before she died. In 1892, on the occasion of her personal exhibition, the work was not finished and couldn't be shown to the public. The model of the work can be found in several works by Berthe Morisot, including Young Girl Leaning (1887) and Young Woman with a Hat (1888). Jeanne-Marie began posing for this painting in 1888, but in 1893, when Morisot resumed work on it, she was no longer available. The artist decided to continue the work despite the absence of a model, drawing inspiration from her daughter, which explains the slightly fixed appearance of the young girl's face.
The Mother and Sister of the Artist (1869)
The Mother and Sister of the Artist, also known as The Reading, is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Berthe Morisot, created in 1869–1870. It is exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C.
The painting depicts Berthe Morisot's mother, Marie-Joséphine, and her favourite sister, Edma Pontillon. Since the beginning of their artistic career, the two sisters had learned their art together. However, in 1869 her sister got married and gave up painting at the insistence of her husband. In this painting, Edma was pregnant with her first child.
Eugène Manet on the Isle of Wight (1875)
Eugène Manet on the Isle of Wight is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Berthe Morisot. The painting depicts a man, Eugène Manet, relaxing at a hotel window, with vases visible on the parapet. Manet is looking out the window as two elegantly dressed women in white pass by. Several boats appear at the shoreline.
The painting dates from the period just after Morisot married Eugène Manet, brother of the painter Édouard Manet, in December 1874. It was created during their honeymoon the following year, when they spent some time at Cowes, a town in the north of the Isle of Wight.
La Petite Niçoise (1889)
La Petite Niçoise (The Small Girl from Nice) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French Impressionist artist Berthe Morisot, executed in 1889. It has been in the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon since 1907.
The painting shows a young girl presented at the waist, seated and turned three-quarters. She stares at the viewer with her brown eyes, her hands resting one on the other at the level of her knees. With her long brown hair in the wind, she wears a discreet earring in her left ear (the only one visible), lipstick, a dark blue top decorated with a rose in the buttonhole and a green-hued skirt. Behind her unfolds a barely sketched mountainous landscape, with a few sketchy forms of trees being recognizable on the left.
In the Dining Room (1886)
In the Dining Room is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French impressionist artist Berthe Morisot, created in 1886. It shows a young woman in the center of the domestic environment of a dining room. The painting is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C.
Morisot was always highly regarded as a woman in the world of the Impressionists. Where her predominantly male colleagues, however, usually took inspiration in the modern city life, going into streets and cafes, painting parks and bridges, she, like Mary Cassatt, for example, often opted for the depiction of indoor domestic subjects. Morisot often chose acquaintances and relatives as models. It suited her role as a woman in society of her time, no matter how progressive and emancipated she was.
Woman at her Toilette (1877)
Woman at her Toilette is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Berthe Morisot, executed between 1875 and 1880. It was first exhibited at the fifth Impressionist exhibition in 1880 and is now in the Art Institute of Chicago. When first shown, the work was displayed alongside other Impressionist works by Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro. The painting is also known under the title Lady at her Toilet. The work is one of several paintings that Morisot completed on the theme of women getting dressed, applying makeup, and arranging their hair.
Woman at her Toilette and Morisot's other toilette scenes were based on everyday experiences she could witness as a bourgeois woman. In 1869, began to focus on depicting bourgeois women in their daily activities. Morisot has seven toilette paintings, and each one explores the dynamics of vision, whether through the inclusion of a mirror, a window, or other visual devices. According to the art historian Anne Higonnet, the toilette scenes displayed a woman's most vulnerable self, where a woman could "produce her self-image" and engage in a private ritual. Morisot's models generally do not acknowledge or see the viewer, emphasizing the sense of privacy. Because female artists often had restricted access to models, Morisot relied on many of her female friends to pose for her works.
Young Woman Watering a Shrub (1876)
83.40; Berthe Morisot, French, 1841 - 1895 (Artist); Young Woman Watering a Shrub; 1876; oil on canvas; Unframed: 15 3/4× 12 1/2 in. (40.01 × 31.75 cm)Framed: 21 1/2× 18 in. (54.61 × 45.72 cm); Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond