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Musée MarMottan MonetP A R I S

Musée Marmottan Monet

Press dossier – February 2012

8 March – 1 July 2012Media relations

Agence Catherine DantanCathia Chabre7, rue Charles V – 75004 ParisTel. : 01 40 21 05 15 [email protected] www.catherine-dantan.fr

(1841-1895)

Musée Marmottan Monet – Berthe Morisot Press dossier – February 2012 02

contents

03 Press release

05 Foreword by Jacques Taddei, Director, Musée Marmottan Monet

06 Berthe Morisot the Impressionist

08 Exhibition itinerary

11 Selected works

19 Biographical outline

22 Press visuals

23 Publications exploring Berthe Morisot’s life and work

24 Musical evenings

25 Practical information

Musée Marmottan Monet – Berthe Morisot Press dossier – February 2012

I

03

From 8 March to 1 July 2012, the Musée Marmottan presents the first major retrospective

of the work of Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) to be held in Paris for almost half a century.

One hundred and fifty paintings, pastels, watercolours and drawings in red chalk and

charcoal, from museums and private collections all over the world, retrace the career of the

Impressionist movement’s best-known woman painter. Works selected for the exhibition

cover the whole of Berthe Morisot’s artistic career, from her earliest works c. 1860, to her

untimely death at the age of 54, in 1895.

The exhibition opens with an exceptional group of self-portraits, and portraits of Morisot

by Edouard Manet (the celebrated painter of Olympia was her brother-in-law). As a founder

member of the Impressionist group, and a leading figure in Paris’s artistic and literary

circles, Berthe Morisot was also a close friend and associate of Degas, Renoir, Monet, and

the poet Stéphane Mallarmé.

Berthe Morisot’s artistic training, in company with her sister Edma, is captured in the latter’s

portrait of Berthe, the sisters’ copies of Veronese painted in the Louvre under the direction

of their art master Joseph Guichard, and the View of Gardens of the Villa d’Este in Tivoli

by Jean-Baptiste Corot (with whom Berthe later studied). Edma was Berthe’s painting

companion until 1869, and her favourite model from 1869 to 1873. Edma abandoned

painting after her marriage, and Berthe continued alone, pursuing her career as a leading

member of the Impressionist group.

At the first Impressionist exhibition, held at the gallery of Paris photographer Nadar in

1874, Berthe Morisot’s work stood out for its feminine subject-matter and delicate style,

and her skill in transcribing the limpid atmosphere and light touch of watercolour in her

oil paintings, giving her work a particular freshness.

From 1873-4 onwards, cousins, friends and professional models posed for portraits show-

ing women dressed, or dressing, for the ball – including Morisot’s last studies in black –

or intimate scenes of everyday life revealing the evolution of the artist’s palette towards

more pastel hues, prompting comparisons with Watteau, Bonington and Fragonard.

Her daughter Julie, born in 1878, naturally became Berthe Morisot’s favourite model, and

the subject of fifteen paintings executed between 1882 and 1888, forming the centrepiece

of the exhibition. Beyond Morisot’s fascination for the theme of childhood, the paintings

testify to the brilliance of her mature style: colours, handling and painterly effects embody

‘Impressionism par excellence’.

press release


u press release

The final part of the exhibition is divided into two sections, one devoted to landscape

– a subject treated by Berthe Morisot throughout her life, and the genre of choice for her

late experiments in the dissolution of form, c.1894-95 – the other, to Berthe’s three ver-

sions of the Cerisier (‘Cherry Tree’) and the Petite Bergère allongée (‘Young shepherdess

reclining’) and the last portraits of Julie, works underscoring Berthe Morisot’s late but key

interest in large-scale compositions and – from 1885 onwards – in drawing. In this closing

section, landscapes bordering on abstraction face contemporary portraits captured in

clean, delicate outlines, each echoing the other and illustrating the rich diversity of artistic

experimentation (drawing, and the dissolution of form) with which Morisot engaged in

her last years.

The exhibition layout takes a fresh look at the work of Berthe Morisot. More than a painter

of women and children, a self-conscious bridge between the painting of the 18th and 19th

centuries, the exhibition invites us to see in her one of the Impressionist movement’s most

innovative, least dogmatic artists – the only member of the group to identify and explore

the link between Renoir’s drawings and the dissolution of form achieved later, by Monet.


I I

05

For over half a century, the Musée Marmottan has been home to one of the world’s most

important collections of Impressionist paintings, and a key institution for the study of

the movement, thanks to legacies and gifts from the friends and families of the painters

themselves.

Victorine Donop de Monchy, the daughter of Georges de Bellio – a doctor, collector and

friend of the Impressionists – set the ball rolling with a bequest of some of the universally-

acknowledged masterpieces of modern painting, including Claude Monet’s Impression,

soleil levant (‘Impression, sunrise’) and Berthe Morisot’s Au bal (‘At the ball’), one of her

best-known and finest works.

In 1966, Michel Monet bequeathed his private collection of works inherited from his father,

bringing one hundred paintings by the founding father of Impressionism to the museum.

In the 1990s, Berthe Morisot’s descendants showed the same generosity:

In 1993, Annie Rouart, wife of Denis Rouart, Berthe Morisot’s grandson, created the Denis

and Annie Rouart Foundation for their private collection of over 150 artworks, now housed

at the museum, almost half by Berthe Morisot.

Three years later, in 1996, Thérèse Rouart, wife of Julien Rouart – another grandson of the

artist – followed the example with a bequest of three works by Berthe Morisot, and pieces

of furniture once belonging to the artist.

With 25 paintings and 50 drawings, the Musée Marmottan holds the world’s biggest public

collection of work by Berthe Morisot. The museum also holds the artist’s invaluable cor-

respondence, and a number of sketchbooks of vital importance for the study of her work.

Fifteen years after a major exhibition of this unique legacy, the Musée Marmottan is organiz-

ing a long-awaited retrospective of Berthe Morisot’s work, the first in Paris since 1941.

This event would not have been possible without the involvement and generosity of the

artist’s family, to whom I express my warmest gratitude. I should also like to thank the many

participating museums and collectors around the world for their vital support. Without

them, we would not have been able to gather together the 150 works presented here today.

As a member of the Institut de France, and director of the museum, I cannot end without

expressing my great pleasure at the inclusion in the exhibition catalogue of texts by Paul

Valéry and Jean-Marie Rouart, both distinguished members of the Académie Française.

Jacques Taddei

Member of the Institut Français.

Director, Musée Marmottan Monet

foreword by jacques taddei director of the musée marmottan monet


I I I

06

berthe morisot the impressionist

‘The fact that the Impressionist group included a woman among its ranks from the outset

is seen today as symbolic, bearing witness to the painters’ embrace of a revolution that was

not confined to the world of painting, but also a sign of a much wider evolution in society

as a whole. Throughout her life, with each new work, each new exhibition, the Impression-

ists considered Berthe Morisot their equal, and her paintings were greatly appreciated by

every member of the group.’ Jean-Dominique Rey, Berthe Morisot, the Beautiful Painter,

Flammarion, 2010, trans. Louise Rogers Lalaurie.

Berthe Morisot is an exceptional figure – an artist who, at the end of the 19th century,

succeeded in reconciling the life of a society lady, wife and mother with a career as an

avant-garde painter (at a time when women were not yet admitted as students to the

Ecole des Beaux-Arts), and who achieved a distinguished reputation as a leading figure in

the Impressionist movement.

Berthe Morisot was born in Bourges, on January 14, 1841. The daughter of the local prefect

(the highest-ranking public servant in the French regions), she was born into a bourgeois,

intellectual family, and studied the piano and drawing with her sister Edma. After a brief

period studying with Geoffroy-Alphonse Chocarne, she studied drawing and colour with

Joseph Guichard, and registered as a copyist at the Louvre to complete her classical art

training. Corot and Oudinot introduced her to painting out of doors – a new approach

which she found especially interesting.

Her meeting with Edouard Manet in 1868 marked a turning point in her life and career.

Berthe Morisot some became one of Manet’s favourite models (Berthe Morisot reclining,

Musée Marmottan Monet). In particular, she posed for two paintings – The Balcony, and

Le repos (‘At rest’), which caused a scandal at the Paris Salon. Undeterred, the young woman

went on to exhibit her own paintings at the Salon, beginning in 1864. Manet – the painter

of the celebrated, equally scandalous Olympia – introduced Berthe Morisot to a new circle,

eager to promote a new kind of painting. Degas, Fantin-Latour, Puvis de Chavannes,

Stevens, Carolus Duran, Jules and Charles Ferry, the composer Rossini, and the painter

Léon Riesener – a cousin of Delacroix – became regulars at Madame Morisot’s Tuesday

salon, and privileged witnesses to the progress of her daughter Berthe, who found encour-

agement in her determination to create a truly distinctive body of work.

A few months before Berthe’s marriage to Manet’s brother Eugène on December 22, 1874,

Degas – a regular at Madame Morisot’s salon – wrote to invite Berthe to take part in the first

Impressionist exhibition: ‘[…] Mlle Berthe Morisot’s reputation and talent are too much


u berthe morisot the impressionist

a part of our endeavor to leave her out.’ Berthe Morisot accepted the invitation, the only

woman artist in the show. Turning her back on the official Paris Salon for good, she joined

her destiny with that of Monet, Degas, Renoir, and Pissarro. With the exception of the fourth

Impressionist exhibition, held shortly after the birth of her daughter Julie (1878-1966),

Berthe Morisot took part in every one of the group’s shows. From 1874 to 1886, the date

of the last Impressionist exhibition, she exhibited nowhere else, establishing herself as

one of the most dedicated members of the group, and the patron of the 1882 and 1886

exhibitions, when she was one of the few Impressionists to agree to have her work shown

alongside Seurat and Signac.

Following Edouard Manet’s death in 1883, Berthe’s Impressionist colleagues Degas, Renoir,

and Monet, and the Symbolist poet Mallarmé formed an intimate circle – a much-loved

extended ‘family’ – gathering for Thursday dinners (beginning in 1886) at the house she

had just built with her husband Eugène on Rue de Villejust in Paris.

In 1892, Berthe Morisot held her first solo exhibition at Galerie Boussod et Valadon – the

only such event held during her lifetime. In 1894, the French State acquired her painting

Jeune Femme en toilette de bal (‘Young woman dressed for a ball’, Paris, Musée d’Orsay)

at the Duret Collection sale, taking Berthe Morisot into the national collection, at the Musée

de Luxembourg, during her own lifetime. In 1895, Berthe Morisot died suddenly of a lung

infection at the age of 54. Her daughter Julie, and her friends Degas, Renoir, Monet and

Mallarmé organized a retrospective of her work one year later, celebrating the woman

who was both Manet’s muse, and a foremost Impressionist in her own right.


IV

08

IV

Berthe Morisot: painter and muse

Fittingly for an exhibition devoted to a woman who was the muse of Edouard Manet

(from 1863 to 1874), the itinerary begins with an exceptional collection of self-portraits

(Self-portrait, 1885, and Portrait of Berthe Morisot and her Daughter, 1885; Self-portrait with

Julie, 1887) and portraits of Berthe Morisot by Edouard Manet (Berthe Morisot with a posy

of violets, 1872; Berthe Morisot reclining, 1873), and Marcelin Desboutin. Berthe married

Manet’s brother Eugène, becoming a leading figure in the Impressionist movement, and

a close friend of Degas, Renoir, Monet and Mallarmé.

Artistic training

At a time when women were not allowed to enroll at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the young

Berthe Morisot took private classes in painting, first (for a short time) with Chocarne, and

later with Guichard, who provided a classical artistic education and enrolled his pupil as

a copyist at the Louvre, where she copied works by Veronese under his instruction (Calvary,

1858; The Meat at the House of Simon, 1860). Recognising in her an artist destined for a

professional career, Guichard recommended his pupil to Corot (whose View of Gardens

of the Villa d’Este in Tivoli Morisot copied in 1863). Corot introduced Morisot to painting

out of doors, which she loved.

From 1857 to 1864, Berthe Morisot studied painting in the company of her sister Edma,

sharing a passionate enthusiasm for art, and an intimate bond. Equally talented, the

desmoiselles Morisot made their Salon début in 1864. Shortly after, Edma painted Berthe

in the act of painting – a subject never attempted by Manet, or any other artist.

Berthe Morisot, her sisters and the ‘ladies of the Grand-Rue’ (1869-1878)

Edma married Adolphe Pontillon in 1869, left Paris for Lorient on the Breton coast, and gave

up her painting career. Perhaps as a way of overcoming their separation, and keeping

alive her sister’s association with the art of painting, Berthe Morisot made Edma her chief

model, from 1869 to 1873, depicting her in numerous works, sometimes alone (Portrait of

Mme Pontillon, 1869, Reading, 1873) and sometimes with her two small daughters, Blanche

and Jeanne (Lilacs at Maurecourt, 1874). Early in her career, Berthe Morisot’s palette was

largely influenced by Manet, whom she met at the Louvre in 1868, becoming his favourite

model. Her interest in the depiction of light and effects of transparency drew her closer to

the work of Monet and Renoir, however, and she exhibited with the Impressionist group,

at Degas’s invitation, from 1874.

exhibition itinerary


u exhibition itinerary

In 1873-4, with her sister Edma living in Brittany, Berthe sought new sitters in her Parisian

cousins (Portrait of Mme Boursier, 1873), friends (Portrait of Mme Hubard, 1874) and pro-

fessional models, posing for portraits in formal ball dress (Le Bal, 1875; The Black Corsage,

1878 – her last studies in black) or intimist scenes (Before the mirror / Devant la psyché,

1876) revealing the evolution of Berthe Morisot’s palette towards more pastel hues, drawing

comparisons with Watteau, Bonington and Fragonard).

The heart of ImpressionismJulie Manet – Young girls out of doors (1878-1889)

Julie, born in 1878, naturally became Berthe Morisot’s favourite model.

Fifteen paintings and watercolours executed between 1882 and 1888 form the centerpiece

of the exhibition. Julie is seen with her father Eugène (Eugène Manet and his daughter in

the garden at Bougival, 1881), her nurse Pasie (The Fable, 1883), playing with her friend

Marthe (Children beside a pool, 1886), her cousin Jeannie (The Piano, 1888) or alone (Little

girl in a blue jersey, 1886).

During the same period, Berthe Morisot pursued her passion for painting figures out of

doors, inviting young women to pose in the Bois de Boulogne (Summer’s Day, 1879), at her

holiday home in Bougival (Pasie sewing in the garden, 1881-2), or the garden of the home

she had built with her husband on Rue de Villejust in Paris’s 16th arrondissement (Woman

in a garden, 1882-3).

Beyond their subject-matter, this group of paintings testifies to the brilliance of Morisot’s

mature style: her pastel colours, free handling and effects of transparency embody the

essence of ‘Impressionism par excellence’.

Landscapes (1871-1895)

Berthe Morisot’s landscape paintings are less well-known, although she dedicated herself

to the genre throughout her life, and took care to represent this aspect of her work at each

of the Impressionist exhibitions. Painted close to home in the Bois de Boulogne, or on

trips to Normandy, Bougival, Nice, Le Mesnil or Brittany, for example, the paintings

evoke the places she visited and loved, retracing her life and the evolution of her art from

1871 to 1895.

As pretexts for Berthe Morisot’s pivotal study of the reflections of light on water, The

Harbour in Nice and The Seine at Bougival are works in the purest Impressionist vein (like

The Garden at Bougival or Hollyhocks) to which Berthe brought her own, highly personal,

poetic approach.

In the late 1880s, landscape become the genre of choice for her experiments in the dis-

solution of form. Her late views of the Bois de Boulogne border on abstraction. Inspired

by photography and the contemporary craze for japonisme, they combine tightly-framed,


u exhibition itinerary

close-up compositions with a tendency to monochrome, an absence of perspective and

noticeably free handling. As such, they anticipate in many ways the experiments pursued

by Monet twenty years later.

Large-scale compositions (1890-1895)

Contrasting with the landscapes, and especially with Berthe Morisot’s non-figurative

experiments of 1894-5, the exhibition presents an exceptional group of large-sale compo-

sitions executed in 1891. The three versions of The Cherry Tree, showing Julie and her

cousin Jeannie picking fruit in the garden at Mézy, and the variations of the Young shep-

herdess reclining – some clothed, some nude – are shown together here for the first time

in a retrospective of Morisot’s work. The paintings demonstrate Morisot’s interest in deco-

rative painting in her later years, and the essential role of drawing in her work – a passion

she shared with her friend Renoir, beginning in 1885.

The last portraits of Julie are in very much the same vein, showing her as an adolescent,

playing the violin in the family apartment on Rue de Weber, where she moved with her

mother in 1892, or – in another composition – with Laertes, her pet greyhound, a gift from

Mallarmé, who was soon to become her guardian.

The exhibition closes with a painting of Julie rêveuse (‘Julie daydreaming’) – one of

Morisot’s most Renoir-esque portraits – and a vigourously-sketched depiction of the Bois

de Boulogne. Begun in 1893, just a few months apart, and shown here facing each other,

the works illustrate Morisot’s late experiments in painting, and her exploration – more

than by any other artist – of the transition from Renoir to the dissolution of form achieved

two decades later, by Monet.


selected worksV

Commentaries on all works in the exhibition are included in the catalogue: Berthe Morisot

(1841-1895), Editions Hazan.

Édouard Manet (1832–1883), Berthe Morisot Reclining (Portrait de Berthe Morisot étendue), 1873

Oil on canvas, 26 x 34 cm (10¼ x 13½ in.) – Signed and date upper right: Manet 1873

Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet, Denis & Annie Rouart Foundation, inv. 6086

Together with Berthe Morisot with a Fan (Berthe Morisot à l’éventail, 1874, Palais des Beaux-Arts,

Lille), this little painting is one of only two portraits by Manet that Morisot owned. Both works

were mentioned in the ‘Historique des tableaux d’Éd. Manet’ that Morisot drew up in one of her

notebooks in around 1885–86. Number ten in this brief inventory described a ‘head-and-shoulders

portrait cut from a full-length portrait reclining on a sofa’. Étienne Moreau-Nélaton tried to describe

the painting as Manet initially conceived it, discussing the reasons that led the artist to sacrifice

part of his canvas. Morisot was ‘reclining on a sofa with one arm extended along the back of the

settee, wearing the black dress that we have seen elsewhere, enlivened once again by white

stockings and pink shoes. But once it was finished, a major mistake so troubled Manet that instead

of correcting a hand he felt was too big, he slashed the work in an impulsive gesture and ampu-

tated the legs and one arm of the figure, keeping only the head and shoulders, the rest being

mercilessly sacrificed.’

Even in its current dimensions, Berthe Morisot Reclining should not be considered a truncated

painting or a fragment of a larger, no longer extant whole. Indeed, it is an autonomous work

resulting from an intentional creative process that included cutting down the canvas itself – which

he signed, dated and offered to his sitter, something Manet never did with unfinished work.

This intimate portrait with its amazing sense of presence reveals Morisot’s beauty and sensuality

thanks to the artist’s total mastery (and perhaps passion). The boldness and intensity of Morisot’s

gaze would captivate the likes of Baudelaire. As Paul Valéry pointed out, it was because ‘her eyes…

were almost too huge and so powerfully dark that Manet… in order to record all their magnetic,

mysterious power, painted them black instead of the greenish colour they really were’. This trans-

formed Morisot, according to Jacques-Émile Blanche, into the ‘Goya element’ in Manet’s œuvre.

Morisot kept this portrait all her life. In 1890 she depicted it in Before the Mirror (cat. 66), and in

1893 it figured again in the background of Julie Playing the Violin (cat. 73). A photoengraving

of this portrait also served as the frontispiece to the catalogue of her posthumous exhibition.

MMa

The Green Parasol (L’Ombrelle verte) or Reading (La Lecture), 1873

Oil on canvas, 45.1 x 72.4 cm (18⅛ x 28¼ in.) – Signed lower right: Berthe Morisot

Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, gift of the Hanna Fund, inv. 1950.89

Edma Morisot Pontillon gave up painting when she married and moved to Lorient. It was a wrench

for her younger sister, Berthe, who lost a painting companion of more than ten years. From Paris,

Berthe wrote letters full of news to Edma, describing the Salon of 1869 in the following terms:


u selected works

‘The great Bazille… is seeking what we have so often sought – to place a figure in an outdoor

setting – and this time I think he has succeeded.’ Henceforth, every time they got together Berthe

had Edma pose; if no longer her colleague, her sister thus became the protagonist of her œuvre.

She depicted Edma outdoors, in Lorient, Paris and Normandy, initially in watercolours and

then in The Green Parasol, an oil that Charles Stuckey asserts was painted at Les Petites Dalles

in 1873. Stuckey has stressed the importance of this work, which illustrates Morisot’s primary

quest in the early 1870s, namely to establish a formal and chromatic balance based on repeti-

tions of shapes (fan and parasol), textures (wildflowers and hat) and colours (the green of grass

and ribbon). Exhibited at the first Impressionist show in 1874 under the title of Reading (number

105), this painting was noted by critic Jean Prouvaire. ‘Far from backstage scenes at the thea-

tre, Mademoiselle Berthe Morisot leads us to meadows moistened by seaside dew. In both her

watercolours and oils, she likes large lawns in which some woman sits, book in hand, with a

child nearby. She sets the charming artifices of a Parisian lady against the charms of nature.’ In

Charivari, however, Louis Leroy criticized the sketchiness of Morisot’s work: ‘Let’s talk about

Mademoiselle Morizot [sic]! This young lady doesn’t bother to depict a mass of idle details.

When she has to paint a hand (La Lecture), she employs as many long brushstrokes as there

are fingers, and the thing is done.’ Even Morisot’s former teacher, Joseph Guichard, worried in

a letter to her mother that Berthe ‘wanted to express in oil what is the exclusive domain of

watercolour’. Visitors to the first Impressionist exhibition could thereby observe, via Reading,

the main characteristics of Morisot’s œuvre: a modern, feminine subject-matter, Impression-

ist brushwork, a luminous palette and transparent effects usually reserved for watercolours.

MMa

Woman with a Fan (Femme à l’éventail) or At the Ball (Au bal), 1875

Oil on canvas, 62 x 52 cm (24⅜ x 20½ in.) – Signed lower right: Berthe Morisot

Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet, gift of Victorine Donop de Monchy, 1940, inv. 4020

Exhibited at the Impressionist show of 1876, this painting reveals Morisot’s interest at that time

in seated or head-and-shoulder portraits of female models, usually indoors. At the Ball, like the

Musée d’Orsay’s Young Woman at a Ball (Jeune femme au bal) – done a few years later – and

the Woman with a Fan (Femme à l’éventail) of 1876, is part of this evocation of a familiar world,

one that was perhaps more conducive to the awakening of Morisot’s artistic personality. At the

Ball was a testing ground that reveals Morisot’s experiments in the expressiveness of colour.

The repetition of a single motif – the bouquet of flowers in the background, the flowers in the

hair, and the flower on the corsage – allowed her to weave a network of correspondences.

The garment, the fan (now in a private collection) and even the gloves, while they dot the canvas

with tones of white, above all offer an excuse to evoke the material quality of the fabrics and

to convey the transparency of the dress in contrast to the opacity of the gloves and the lightness

of the fan.

It is perhaps this attention to the depiction of specifically feminine attributes – domestic interiors,

fashionable dress, sitters in melancholic or dreamy poses – that led Albert Wolff to state in 1876:

‘There is also a woman in the group, as there is in all notorious gangs, for that matter; her

name is Berthe Morisot and she is curious to observe. She maintains feminine grace amidst

the excesses of a frenzied imagination.’ MMo


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The Plain of Gennevilliers (La Plaine de Gennevilliers) or Hanging the Laundry Out to Dry

(Percher de blanchisseuse), 1875

Oil on canvas, 33 x 40.6 cm (13 x 16 in.) – Signed lower left: Berthe Morisot – Washington, National

Gallery of Art, collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon, inv. 1985.64.28

‘I’ve just come from the plain of Gennevilliers, which I crossed from one end to the other, starting

from Epinay,’ wrote Eugène Manet to Berthe Morisot in 1882. ‘Everything is blossoming and smells

of spring. This plain is indeed pretty from all sides.’ Morisot knew these outskirts of Paris well, for

her in-laws had a house there. She also liked this increasingly urbanised landscape when it was

transfigured by the light of the first days of mild weather. In the spring of 1875 she did four simi-

larly structured paintings of it during one stay shortly after her marriage: Little Mill at Gennevilliers

(Le Petit Moulin à Gennevilliers, CMR 43, private collection), Landscape at Gennevilliers (cat. 13,

CMR 44, private collection), In the Wheat Fields (Dans les blés, CMR 46, Musée d’Orsay, Paris) and

this painting of Hanging the Laundry Out to Dry. The artist adopted a somewhat low angle and

placed the horizon line along the upper third of the painting, thereby increasing the apparent vast-

ness of the plain. The compositions are organised on two registers, a primary one devoted to the

fields and a smaller, crowning one that featured the cloud-studded sky typical of the greater Paris

region. However, Hanging the Laundry Out to Dry differs from the other views of Gennevilliers in

its light, varied palette, with whites, pinks and blues lighting up the picture. Applied in short

strokes, these colours evoke rather than depict the hanging sheets and the dress of the laundress,

whose mere presence lends life to the scene. Morisot was clearly fond of this painting, which she

exhibited at the Impressionist show of 1876, where collector Georges de Bellio bought it. Indeed,

in 1892 she asked to borrow the painting so that it could be included in the only solo show organised

during her lifetime, at the Boussod et Valadon gallery. It was borrowed once again in 1896 for her

posthumous exhibition. MMa

Before the Mirror (Devant la psyché), 1890

Oil on canvas, 55 x 46 cm (21⅝ x 18⅛ in.) – Signed lower right: B. Morisot – Martigny, Pierre Gianadda

Foundation Collection

Painting a nude at her toilet from the back without revealing her facial features in the mirror

seemed particularly modern at the time, and probably reflected an artistic challenge: the reflection

appears as a painting within the painting, and moreover alluded to other canvases such as

Manet’s Berthe Morisot Reclining (Berthe Morisot étendue, cat. 3). Degas, like Manet, had painted

reflections in a mirror, but the subject had rarely been applied to a woman seen from the back.

Critic Edmond Duranty had initiated the idea in 1876 – doing a portrait from the back was a mod-

ern motif that seemed to represent a particularly sharp break with tradition. While this type of

subject was typical of Morisot, the handling reveals a development dating back a year. ‘In 1889,

for Christmas, Julie received a box of coloured pencils as a gift, which gave Berthe the idea of

using that technique. Once again, her work evolved thanks to her daughter; from that point

onward, drawing became a crucial part of her work. The subjects for paintings were first worked

out in various sketches in pencil or watercolour, then squared up. Between 1888 and 1891, her

style changed more than it ever had before.’ Her brushstrokes lengthened, following volumes and

enclosing outlines. Still basically swift and fragmented, her brushwork nevertheless adapted to a

more uniform handling of body – Morisot managed to reconcile opposites by drawing in colour.

EAS


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Summer’s Day (Jour d’été), 1879

Oil on canvas, 45.7 x 75.3 cm (18 x 29⅝ in.) – Signed lower right: Berthe Morisot – London, The National

Gallery, bequest of M. Lane in 1917, inv. NG 3264

There is no need to identify the sitters in this painting, nor is there a need to know the location

(even though it was exhibited at the 1880 Impressionist show under the title of The Lake in the

Bois de Boulogne). Nor, finally, is there a need to define the action, to decide whether these two

women are simply enjoying a boat ride or are travelling on the ferry to the islands of the lower

lake. The only thing that mattered to the artist, who boarded the boat in order to paint her sitters

from life, was the study of two figures seen outdoors, subject to the variations of summer light

shimmering on the water.

Done in the summer of 1879, when Morisot was living near the lake, this canvas shows her com-

mitment to Impressionism in terms of both subject-matter and handling. The latter is particularly

lively here. Like her male colleagues, Morisot sought to convey the temporal aspect of the act of

painting by leaving certain passages in a sketchy state – notably the bottom of the blue dress,

done with just a few brushstrokes. Since the Impressionists established no hierarchy of forms, the

figures are handled in the same way as the water of the lake, using rapid, zigzag brushstrokes all

across the canvas. Such brushwork nevertheless plays a constructive role within the apparently

chaotic evocation of the infinite variety of light by adding substantial density to this straightfor-

ward composition, one based on setting the figures along the diagonal gunwale of the boat while

anchoring their faces on the green horizontal of the shore. PP

Eugène Manet and His Daughter at Bougival (Eugène Manet et sa fille dans le jardin de Bougival)

or In the Country (A la campagne), 1881

Oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm (28¾ x 36¼ in.) – Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet, Denis & Annie Rouart

Foundation, 1993, inv. 6018

‘I’m somewhat flabbergasted that you say you took the canvas of you and Bibi, it seems abso-

lutely silly to me. I beg you, take another look at it.… If my paintings are to be put on easels, that

is to say very near [the viewer], then don’t put things that may appear grotesque.’ Those are the

words that Morisot addressed in 1882 to her husband Eugène Manet, who was charged with

setting up his wife’s work at the Impressionist exhibition. While the portrait of Eugène with his

daughter in the garden at Bougival seemed inadequate in the eyes of the artist, some critics noticed

it immediately.

‘Mademoiselle Berthe Morisot has always had a palette of exquisite finesse. But the draughtsman-

ship of this charming artist is truly becoming too imaginary. Her canvases are henceforth a delicious

stew of colours.… The large figure bearing the number 92, titled In the Country, is the largest of

her submissions.’ Morisot’s harmonious use of colour struck Armand Sylvestre when he reviewed

this exhibition for the Chronique des arts et de la curiosité. Indeed, even though Eugène and little

Julie are easily identifiable – the father is sitting on a bench with a construction set on his lap while

his daughter plays with the pieces – the viewer’s eye is rapidly drawn to the colourful reverberations

that punctuate the canvas. This impression is reinforced by the garden in the background, where

the flowers become a series of coloured brushstrokes evoking the variety of the flowerbeds there.

And yet behind this apparent diversity there lies the quest for a certain unity of tone. The flower-

beds, Julie’s dress and ribbon, and even Eugène’s hat seem to echo one another, constituting an

ensemble of pink and mauve hues. MMo


u selected works

The Port of Nice (Le Port de Nice), 1882

Oil on canvas, 53 x 43 cm (23¼ x 17 in.) – Signature stamp lower right – Paris, Musée Marmottan

Monet, Denis & Annie Rouart Foundation, 1993, inv. 6010

The Port of Nice (Le Port de Nice), 1882

Oil on canvas, 41 x 55 cm (16⅛ x 21⅝ in.) – Signed lower right: Berthe Morisot – Cologne,

Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Corboud Foundation, inv. Dep. FC710

During her first stay in Nice with her daughter, Morisot executed roughly ten paintings, three

of which were shown at the seventh Impressionist exhibition. Two of those three were these

similarly sized views of the port. In order to get closer to her subject and to avoid setting her

easel on a dock crowded with onlookers, Morisot had herself taken right up to the ships. There

she could paint in peace, as Julie recorded in her diary: ‘Mama painted in a boat in the middle

of the harbour, and I watched her from the dock. I wanted to go with her in the boat but at the

same time I was very afraid.’

Rotating the format of these two canvases, Morisot presented two very different points of view.

The work now in the Musée Marmottan Monet allots nearly two-thirds of the canvas to the

watery element, opening onto the villas overlooking the port; the other one, is divided into two

registers of equal dimensions, occupied respectively by a tangle of ships and by the reflection

of a fishing boat set on the middle line.

Done with light, swift brushwork that allows glimpses of raw canvas, these views of the port of

Nice seem more like watercolours than oil paintings; conservative critics were inevitably

shocked by the unfinished look of the works on display. Described by Paul de Charry in his 1882

review as ‘something incomprehensible and mad’, the Cologne version was also disliked for its

heavy use of pure cobalt blue, a new chemical pigment that the Impressionists used liberally

and which many detractors felt was too aggressive on the eyes.

The palette used by Morisot in the southern French sunlight was nevertheless much more moder-

ate than the one used by her Impressionist colleagues who were discovering the Riviera during

that same period. It was on his return from Italy in 1882 that Renoir stayed in Provence for the

first time, halting at L’Estaque to visit and to work alongside Cézanne. The following year, taking

advantage of a new Paris–Marseille railway line that ran as far as Vintimille, Renoir dragged

Monet down to the Riviera. The pair returned enchanted, despite Monet’s initial reservations.

Thoroughly seduced, he returned in 1884 to set up his easel near the Franco-Italian border at

Bordighera, ‘a magical land’ that Monet said ‘called for a palette of diamonds and gemstones’.

Despite the blinding intensity of the Mediterranean sunlight (which tended to crush objects into

‘silhouettes not only black and white, but also blue, red, brown and purple’, as Cézanne wrote

to Pissarro regarding L’Estaque in 1876), Morisot remained faithful to the subtle colouring that

characterised not only her painting but also her personality. PP

Self-Portrait, 1885

Oil on canvas, 61 x 50 cm (24 x 19¾ in.) – Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet, Denis & Annie Rouart

Foundation, inv. 6022

This portrait was not conceived as a private work painted for the family, but rather as the self-

portrait of an artist who accepted her status and wanted to leave her image to posterity. As an

avid museum-goer, Morisot had visited the Uffizi in Florence in 1881, where she may have seen

the gallery of artists’ self-portraits. She certainly intended to place herself in this tradition for,


u selected works

like many painters before her, she showed herself with brush and palette in hand, from the

waist up, facing forward with the steady, impassive gaze of the creative artist who sacrifices

everything for art. The woman who claimed in 1890 that ‘I’ve always had great difficulty detach-

ing myself from places, people and even animals, yet the funny thing is that people think I’m

insensitivity itself’ inevitably recognised herself in these portraits, whose apparent coldness is

merely a reflection of the demanding life of an artist.

When she began this self-portrait in 1885, Morisot probably had many examples in mind. It was

impossible not to think of Ingres and Delacroix, whose masterpieces she nostalgically recalled

in 1890. Indeed, it was Ingres’s Portrait of the Stamaty Family (1818, Louvre) that had awak-

ened her painter’s calling at the age of fourteen. Furthermore, her teacher, Joseph Guichard

(1806–1880) had been a student of Ingres and an admirer of Delacroix. Also, she was friendly

with the Riesener family, relatives of Delacroix, that glorious painter of the Apollo ceiling (1851)

in the Louvre.

So when painting her own self-portrait, how could Morisot forget the portrait by one of her

mentors? As a cultured woman she was surely familiar with Ingres’s already famous Self-Portrait,

Aged Twenty-Four (1804, Musée Condé, Chantilly). And at the Louvre in 1884, she could have

seen Delacroix’s Portrait in a Green Waistcoat (1837, acquired by the Louvre in 1872). Perhaps

the black scarf Morisot is wearing – rather than her usual choker – and the green highlight on her

lapel should be seen as allusions to the master’s cravat and green waistcoat, thus as a discreet

tribute to an artist who was foremost in her thoughts in 1885. Finally, maybe she was also

inspired by David’s Self-Portrait in the Louvre (1794, acquired by the Louvre in 1852), in which

the artist chose to present himself, as she did, in tones of beige, palette and brush in hand.

Whatever the case, Morisot is telling us that she is the peer of masters both old and modern

(she furthermore exhibited her self-portrait alongside those of Manet, Cézanne, Gauguin and

van Gogh at the Le Barc de Boutteville gallery in 1893). Julie was correct when she wrote in

her diary: ‘We see from this portrait the great artist she was, facing us directly with her grey-

ing hair, her neck wrapped in black, and wearing a yellowish bodice trimmed with flowers,

one of which is “like a badge of honour” according to Mallarmé, lending her what Monsieur de

Régnier felt was a knightly air.’ Morisot’s ‘badge’ reveals a certain sense of wit and noble spirit.

MMa

The Cherry Tree (Le Cerisier), 1891

Oil on canvas, 55 x 33 cm (21⅝ x 13 in.) – Private collection


Oil on canvas, 146.5 x 89 cm (57⅝ x 35 in.) – Signature stamp lower right – Private collection


Oil on canvas, 154 x 80 cm (60⅝ x 31½ in.) – Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet, Denis & Annie Rouart

Foundation, 1993, inv. 6020

This charming work, apparently done from life in the natural light of spring, is in fact the oppo-

site of what it appears to be. It was a long-meditated work, the product of multiple studies

requiring much effort and many changes of model. Furthermore, it was done during a time of

distress, the period between the illness and death of her husband, which the viewer of this gay

cherry-picking scene could hardly imagine.

‘What one doesn’t notice in a first glance at Berthe Morisot’s work is the strength that drives

her – a steady, focused strength channelled into expressiveness. It came at the cost of exhausting


u selected works

efforts that are masked by her art. The paradox of this work, which seems so spontaneous,

cheerful, sweet and harmonious, is that it was done in sorrowful circumstances, with a stub-

bornness and a despair hard to imagine if they weren’t confirmed by so many passages in the

notebooks and letters of an artist always dissatisfied with herself.’

Having begun with a drawing in coloured pencils done from life, the final work was completed

thanks to encouragement from Renoir after many studies of details and the overall scene. One

pastel focuses attention on the motif of the ladder in the trees, while an oil sketch was painted

in the garden prior to the execution of two larger versions done not outdoors but in the closed

atmosphere of Morisot’s studio in her rue Weber home. Here a professional model replaced

the artist’s daughter Julie, in what had been a double portrait with her niece in the foreground,

whose face was hidden. Red chalk and watercolour were also employed in an extended process

of composition that the apparent spontaneity of the final version hardly conveys. The quasi-

decorative ambitions behind this large work, designed to be exhibited – at Renoir’s suggestion

– at a Salon on the Champ-de-Mars, are fairly unique in Morisot’s œuvre. The graphic quality

of the composition orchestrated around the ladder and the supple brushwork (longer strokes,

albeit still lively, that define shapes and figures through colour) were based on those many

studies without losing the natural feel. This is perhaps the sole example in Morisot’s œuvre of

such thorough preparatory work, which nevertheless does not undermine its Impressionist

qualities. The final version remained in Morisot’s collection, although she nearly sold it to a

relative, Gabriel Thomas. The picture was admired by Mallarmé and Renoir at her retrospective

exhibition of 1896. Renoir probably felt affinities with Morisot’s success at combining draughts-

manship with colour, great rigour with naturalness, and a sense of intimacy with decorative

ambitions. EAS

Woods in Autumn (Sous-bois en automne), 1894

Oil on canvas, 43 x 33 cm (17 x 13 in.) – Signature stamp lower left – Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet,

Denis & Annie Rouart Foundation, inv. 6004

Tree and Lake in the Woods (Arbre et lac au bois) or Sunset on the Lake in the Bois

de Boulogne (Soleil couchant sur le lac du bois de Boulogne), 1894

Oil on canvas, 27 x 35 cm (10¾ x 13¾ in.) – Signature stamp lower left – Private collection

All her life Morisot lived in the sixteenth arrondissement of Paris, right near the Bois de Boulogne.

These woods were an ideal place to work for an artist who was so enthusiastic about plein air

painting. In 1920 Jacques-Emile Blanche wrote a text that he dedicated to Julie Manet (Les

Dames de la Grande-Rue) in which he recalled the days when Berthe Morisot still lived with her

parents on rue Guichard ‘in the heart of old Passy’, the days when her first escapades took her

to the lake to do ‘a study of the swans, which she followed in a boat’. Paul Valéry, meanwhile,

wrote that the woods ‘provided [Morisot] with all the landscape she needed… Berthe was sat-

isfied with this poor Paris version of nature, for she took what it had to offer: an excuse for

exquisite paintings’.

It was in the Bois de Boulogne that Morisot first painted figures in outdoor settings, using profes-

sional models (Summer’s Day, cat. 26), followed by Julie and her nanny Pasie, several examples

of which are included here . Autonomous landscapes are rarer. The earliest views of the Bois

de Boulogne were painted in around 1884–86. Meanwhile, a significant series of small paintings

date from 1893–94, including the two here, Autumn in the Woods and Sunset on the Lake in the

Bois de Boulogne. MMa


u selected works

Bois de Boulogne, 1893

Oil on canvas – 50 x 61 cm (19½ x 24 in.) – Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet, Denis & Annie Rouart

Foundation, inv. 6008

‘‘In the wood’, in front of the lake where you glimpse the island with its flowerbeds, the strollers

and the lane circling the lake with its bicycles, carriages, riders, pedestrians and mothers with their

children, set against a celestial blue sky,’ wrote Julie Manet in her diary, ‘stands Laertes on his hind

legs, being stroked by his mistress, also standing, dressed in black with a large muslin hat; the

grass is rather yellow, and a green tree trunk occupies the foreground. It’s a wonderful impression

of the woods in summer, of this garden that posed for Mama – she was its portraitist. This painting

was done from a sketch, very quickly.’ Known sketches include one watercolour and two drawings

in coloured pencils. The painting itself was done in the rue Weber apartment, where Morisot moved

after her husband died. In its swift execution, its lively, sketchy style, the marked tendency of

shapes to dissolve into one another, and its chromatic range and Japanese-type composition,

Bois de Boulogne is a harbinger of Morisot’s last landscapes with which it already shares a title.

After painting this work at the end of summer, in October 1893 Morisot undertook a very different

portrait of Julie, titled Julie Daydreaming (cat. 79). Unlike Bois de Boulogne, outlines are distinctly

drawn and shapes are maintained. What Julie described in her diary as a ‘very finished’ painting

in fact illustrates the artistic dialogue then underway between Morisot and Renoir (who also did a

portrait of Julie in 1894, now in the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris). Separated by just a few

months, Bois de Boulogne and Julie Daydreaming reflect the various approaches adopted by

Morisot in the 1890s. Tending towards abstraction on one hand, yet organised around draughts-

manship on the other, they reveal the constant creativity and open-mindedness of an artist who

stands as one of the most original practitioners of Impressionism. MMa

Julie Daydreaming (Julie rêveuse), 1894

Oil on canvas – 65 x 54 cm (25½ x 21¼ in.) – Private collection

This intimate, melancholy portrait was begun in the studio on rue Weber after the death of Julie’s

father, and was completed the very year that Morisot and her daughter posed for Renoir. Julie

herself commented, ‘I seem so sad in this graceful portrait, one senses the misfortune that struck

me so intensely, still so young.’ Her sorrowful reverie is particularly well expressed by her curled

pose, vacant gaze and pouting lips. The strong outlines – noted by all the critics at the 1896 exhibi-

tion – are reminiscent of Renoir’s technique and his own portraits of Julie, which underscore the

geometry of her face through round cheeks and lips countered by oblong, feline eyes. Going

beyond Renoir, Morisot possessed a special, long – almost languorous – brushstroke that outlined

her daughter’s figure and followed the line of her head in multiple waves, creating a kind of green

aura around her hair. In this respect the portrait perhaps projects an atypical, almost ‘Art Nouveau’

feel; indeed, it perhaps evokes the melancholy of someone in Paris in 1896 who attentively fol-

lowed the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists and who was also interested in auras and

melancholic beings, namely Edvard Munch. This similarity was certainly more than a coincidence,

reflecting an approach that was in the spirit of the times. EAS


VI berthe morisot: biographical outline

1841 - Berthe Morisot is born in Bourges, the third daughter of Marie-Joséphine Cornélie Thomas (1819-1876) and Edme Tiburce Morisot (1806-1874), prefect of the French department of Cher.

- Two older sisters, Yves (1838-1893) and Edma (1839-1921); and a younger brother, Tiburce (1848-c.1930)

1841-1848 - The Morisot family settles in Limoges.

1852 - After a spell in Caen, the family moves permanently to Paris’s Passy neighbourhood, where Berthe was to spend much of her life.

- Music lessons with Stamaty fils.

1857 - Madame Morisot arranges drawing lessons for her daughters. Early classes with Chocarne, on Rue de Lille; then with the painter Joseph Guichard, a pupil of Ingres, who soon spots Edma’s and Berthe’s talent and predicts professional careers for the girls.

1858-1860 - Edma and Berthe, now copyists at the Louvre, meet Félix Bracquemond and Henri Fantin-Latour at the museum.

1860-1862 - On Guichard’s advice, the two sisters join the studio of Camille Corot, who introduces them to painting out of doors.

- The family spends the summer of 1861 at La Ville-d’Avray, near Corot’s home, where Berthe and Edma paint from life, out of doors.

1864 - The family moves to 16 Rue Franklin in Paris; several paintings by Berthe show the house’s drawing-room and terrace. On Tuesdays, Madame Morisot hosts her celebrated dinners, entertaining Jules Ferry, Carolus-Duran, and Rossini.

- Berthe and Edma make their début at the Paris Salon. - Several important meetings follow: the painter Léon Riesener, a pupil and cousin of Delacroix,

the Duchess of Castiglione Colonna (a sculptor under the pseudonym Marcello) and the sculptor Aimé Millet.

1865 - Monsieur Morisot builds a studio for his daughters in the garden of 16 Rue Franklin, destroyed later during the 1871 Siege of Paris. Berthe had no studio of her own again until 1891, but continued painting in her bedroom and drawing-room.

- The two sisters exhibit a second time at the Salon.

1866 et 1867 - Third and fourth appearances at the Salon. - In 1867, Berthe and Edma exhibit their work with the art dealer Cadart.

1868 - During a copying session at the Louvre, Fantin-Latour introduces Edma and Berthe to Edouard Manet. Berthe soon becomes one of his favourite models – the subject of ten portraits from 1868 to 1874. The families become friends: Tuesday dinners are held at the Morisots’, Thursday evenings at the Manets’, where Berthe meets Edgar Degas, Emile Zola, Puvis de Chavannes…

- The sisters exhibit again at the Salon.


u berthe morisot: biographical outline

1896 - Edma marries the naval officer Adolphe Pontillon and moves to Lorient. The separation is painful for both sisters. Edma gives up painting, but becomes Berthe’s favourite model, from 1869 to 1871

1870-1871 - Berthe’s health is permanently affected by the hardships of the Franco-Prussian war and the Paris Commune.

1872 - Berthe exhibits a large pastel of Edma (Portrait of Mme Montillon) at the Salon. - On July 10, Berthe sells a painting and three watercolours to the gallerist Durand-Ruel.

1873 - Final appearance at the Salon.- The family moves once again, to 7 Rue Guichard in Passy. Berthe paints her neighbours’ portraits, and pictures of Edma and her children, whom she joins for the holidays (eg. L’Ombrelle, ‘The Parasol’).

1874 - From April 15 to May 15, Berthe Morisot takes part in the first Impressionist exhibition at the studio of Paris photographer Nadar, showing nine canvases including seven of Edma. She is the only woman to take part in the exhibition.

- On 22 December, Berthe marries Edouard Manet’s brother Eugène, whom she met during the summer.

1875 - On March24, Berthe Morisot, Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley organize a public sale of their work at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris. Berthe’s painting Intérieur achieves the highest sale price (480 francs), but the sale is a commercial failure and is not repeated.

- Honeymoon on the Isle of Wight and in London; Berthe paints numerous canvases and watercolours.

1876 - Exhibits nineteen works at the second Impressionst exhibition at Galerie Durand-Ruel.

1877 - Exhibits twelve works at the group’s third exhibition on Rue Le Peletier.

1878 - Birth of Julie Manet (1878-1966), on November 14. Berthe’s daughter becomes her favourite model.

1879 - For the only time in her life, Berthe does not take part in the (fourth) Impressionist exhibition, organised soon after Julie’s birth.

1880 - Exhibits fifteen works at the fifth Impressionist exhibition on Rue des Pyramides.

1881 - Exhibits seven works at the sixth Impressionist exhibition on Boulevard des Capucines. Critics hail Berthe as one of the movement’s outstanding exponents; her pastel colour palette draws comparisons to Fragonard and Watteau.

- With Eugène Manet, Berthe buys a plot of land on Rue de Villejust in Paris (now Rue Paul Valéry), where they build an apartment block, to be partly rented and partly occupied by the family.

1882 - In March, Berthe Morisot and Eugène Manet finance the seventh Impressionist exhibition on Rue St Honoré, including twelve works by Berthe.

1883 - In London, Berthe presents three pictures at the Impressionist exhibition organised by Durand-Ruel.

- Death of Edouard Manet, on April 30.- Work on Rue de Villejust is completed. Eugène Manet and Berthe move to the new building with Madame Auguste Manet, who is gravely ill.


1884 - A posthumous exhibition of Manet’s work opens on January 4 at the Beaux-Arts, organized in large part by Eugène Manet and Berthe Morisot.

- Through Mallarmé, Berthe Morisot becomes more closely acquainted with Monet.

1885 - Berthe Morisot organises regular Thursday soirées at Rue de Villejust: Mallarmé, Degas, Renoir and Monet are frequent guests, as members of Morisot’s extended ‘family’ of intimate friends.

1886 - Berthe presents nine works in New York at an Impressionist exhibition organised by Durand-Ruel.

- The last Impressionist exhibition in Paris is held from May 15 to June 15, on Rue Lafitte. Berthe exhibits eleven works, and finances the exhibition with Degas, Henri Rouart and Mary Cassat.

1887 - Exhibits with the Groupe des XX in Brussels, with Paul Signac, Georges Seurat and others.- Presents seven canvases at the Exposition International, with Georges Petit. - At Mallarmé’s request, Berthe learns print-making to illustrate a collection of poems, Le Tiroir de Laque (‘The Lacquered Drawer’).

- Renoir paints a portrait of Julie, known as L’Enfant au Chat (‘Child with a Cat’).

1888-1891 - Berthe Morisot exhibits extensively in Paris and New York.

1892 - Death of Eugène Manet on April 13.- First solo exhibition of Berthe Morisot’s work, from May 26 to June 18 at Galerie Boussod

et Valadon. The show features forty paintings and graphic works. The catalogue is prefaced by the journalist and art critic Gustave Geoffroy.

1893 - Julie Manet begins her private journal, during a stay with Mallarmé. - On October 30, Julie describes a visit to Giverny with her mother, during which Monet

shows them twenty-six Cathedral paintings.

1894 - Through Mallarmé, the French State acquires Berthe’s painting Jeune Femme en tenue de bal (‘Young woman dressed for the ball’). The work enters the collection of the Musée de Luxembourg.

- Renoir paints a portrait of Berthe with her daughter Julie.

1895 - While nursing Julie, Berthe contrasts a lung infection and dies suddenly on March 2. She is buried in the Manet family vault at Passy cemetery in Paris on March 5.

1896 - Posthumous exhibition at Galerie Durand-Ruel from March 5 to March 21, organised by her friends Degas, Monet, Renoir and Mallarmé, assisted by Julie. The show includes

380 paintings by Berthe Morisot – the biggest-ever exhibition of her work.

u berthe morisot: biographical outline


VII press visualsThese visuals are available for use in connection with articles promoting the exhibition

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) at the Musée Marmottan Monet from March 8 to July 1, 2012.

All visuals must be used with their accompanying captions and credits.

Berthe Morisot, La Lecture or L’Ombrelle verte, c.1873 – Oil on canvas – 46 x 71.8 cm The Cleveland Museum of Art – Gift of the Hanna Fund 1950.89

Berthe Morisot, Au bal, 1875 – Oil on canvas – 62 x 52 cm – Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris – © musée Marmottan Monet, Paris / Bridgeman Art / Presse

Berthe Morisot, Devant la Psyché or Devant le Miroir, 1876 – Oil on canvas65 x 54 cm – Musée Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid © Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Berthe Morisot, Jour d’été, 1879 – Oil on canvas – 45.7 x 75.3 cm – The National Gallery, London – © Bridgeman Giraudon

Berthe Morisot, Jeune Femme en gris étendue, 1879 – Oil on canvas– 24 x 51 cm Private collection– © Christian Baraja, studio SLB

Berthe Morisot, Eugène Manet et sa fille dans le jardin de Bougival, 1881 – Oil on canvas – 73 x 92 cm – Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris – © musée Marmottan Monet, Paris / Bridgeman Art / Presse

Berthe Morisot, Pasie cousant dans le jardin, 1881-1882 – Oil on canvas 81 x 100 cm – Musée des beaux-arts, Pau © Jean-Christophe Poumeyrol

Berthe Morisot, Sur le lac du bois de Boulogne, 1884 – Oil on canvas 55 x 43 cm – Private collection© Christian Baraja, studio SLB

Berthe Morisot, Autoportrait, 1885 – Oil on canvas – 61 x 50 cm – Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris – © musée Marmottan Monet, Paris / Bridgeman Art / Presse

Berthe Morisot, Le Cerisier, 1891 – Oil on canvas – 154 x 80 cm – Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris – © musée Marmottan Monet, Paris / Bridgeman Art / Presse

Berthe Morisot, Bergère nue couchée, 1891 – Oil on canvas– 56 x 86 cmCarmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, on loan to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum – © Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Berthe Morisot, Julie rêveuse, 1894, Oil on canvas– 65 x 54 cm Private collection – © Dreyfus

Berthe Morisot, Bois de Boulogne, 1893 Oil on canvas– 50 x 61 cm, Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris – © Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris / Bridgeman Art / Presse


• Exhibition catalogue published by Éditions HazanPaperback with cover flaps – 220 x 285 mm – 264 pages – 200 Illustrations – Prix : 35 € TTC

ISBN: 978 2 7541 06078 – Available 1 March 2012

Edited by Marianne Mathieu, deputy director of the Musée Marmottan Monet (Collections

and Communications).

Contributors: Paloma Alarcó, head of the department of modern paintings at the Thyssen-

Bornmisza Museum, Madrid; Emmanuelle Amiot-Saulnier, doctor of Art History, specializing

in 19th-century painting; Michèle Moyne, curator at the Palais des Beaux-arts, Lille; Lauranne

Neveu, conservation officer at the Musée Marmottan Monet; Pierre Pinchon, doctor of Art

History, specializing in 19th-century art / lecturer at the University of Paris I Sorbonne.

English edition translated by Charles Penwarden.

Contents

- Foreword, Jacques Taddei

- On Berthe Morisot, Paul Valéry

- Berthe Morisot: from Wound to Light, Jean-Marie Rouart

- Watercolours, Pastels and Drawings in the Work of Berthe Morisot, Marianne Mathieu

- Catalogue of exhibited works, Emmanuelle Amiot-Saulnier, Marianne Mathieu,

Michèle Moyne, Pierre Pinchon et Paloma Alarcó

- Catalogue of graphic works / Collection of the Musée Marmottan Monet, Lauranne Neveu

- Chronology, Marianne Mathieu

• Beaux Arts Magazine, special edition48 pages – 22 x 28.5 cm – 9 € TTC

• Studies of Berthe Morisot and her work

- Berthe Morisot by Jean-Dominique Rey and Sylvie Patry

Translated by Louise Rogers Lalaurie. Éditions Flammarion, 2010

- Une famille dans l’impressionnisme by Jean-Marie Rouart

Gallimard, 2001

- Berthe Morisot. Le Secret de la femme en noir by Dominique Bona

Grasset, 2000

publications exploring berthe morisot’s life and work

VII I


XI

Celebrating Berthe Morisot’s links with the artists of her day… Musicians, writers and

poets (Mallarmé, Paul Valery, Proust…), friends, family, shared inspiration and themes: a

series of recitals conceived as a ‘soundtrack’ to the works on display.

• Tuesday March 13, 2012 at 7 p.m.

Tendresse et rêverie, Valentina Igoshina, piano

- Chopin : Nocturne in E flat major Op.9

- Debussy: Two arabesques / La Sérénade ininterrompue / Rêverie /

Valse romantique / Nocturne, Mazurka

- Medtner: Skazka (‘Fairy Tale’) in G major Op.26

- Tchaikovsky-Rachmaninov: Lullaby

- Rachmaninov: Melody / Serenade / Polichinelle Op.3

- Kreisler-Rachmaninov: Liebesfreud

• Tuesday April 17, 2012 at 7 p.m.

Musicians from the Orchestre de Paris

Programme to be announced.

• Tuesday May 22, 2012 at 7 p.m.

Cygnes et signes (‘Swans and signs’):

Gauthier Herrmann, ‘cello, and Romain Descharmes, piano

- Duparc: Mélodies

- Fauré: Mélodies

- Chausson: Pièce

- Dvorak: Rusalka (transc.) Kild

- Saint-Saëns: Le Cygne

• Tuesday June 12, 2012 at 7 p.m.

Le Berceau (‘The Cradle’): Hugues Borsarello, violin, and Olivier Peyrebrune, piano

- Louise Farrenc: Variations concertantes sur un rhème suisse

- Fauré: Berceuse

- Saint-Saëns: Introduction and rondo capriccioso or Havanaise

- César Franck: Sonata

musical evenings


practical informationX

Jacques Taddei

Director, Musée Marmottan Monet

Lauranne Neveu

Exhibition coordinator

Jacques Taddei

Directeur, Musée Marmottan Monet

Marie-Catherine Croix

Deputy director (Communications

and External Relations)

Marianne Mathieu

Deputy director (Collections

and Communications)

Agence Catherine Dantan

Cathia Chabre

7, rue Charles V

75004 Paris

Address

2, rue Louis-Boilly – 75016 Paris

Web site

www.marmottan.com

Access

Metro: Muette – Line 9

RER: Boulainvilliers – Line C

Bus: 22, 32, 52, P.C.

Opening times

Open Tuesday to Sunday,

10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Late-night opening Thursday until 8 p.m.

Closed Mondays, December 25,

January 1 and May 1.

Marianne Mathieu

Deputy director,

Musée Marmottan Monet

(Collections and Communications)

François Desfachelle

Deputy director

(Administration and Finance)

Aurélie Gavoille

Lauranne Neveu

Antonin Macé de Lépinay

Conservation officers

Tel. : 01 40 21 05 15

[email protected]

or [email protected]

www.catherine-dantan.fr

Admission

Standard: 10 euros

Concessions: 5 euros

Under 7s: Free

Group bookings

Christine Lecca

Tel.: 01 44 96 50 33

School groups and bookings:

Cécile Lanusse

Tel.: 01 44 96 50 41

Audioguide

Available in French,

English and Japanese

3 € TTC

exhibition curators

musée marmottan monet

media relations

Documents

Musée Marmottan Monet - French by Choicefrenchbychoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/DP_BERTHE_MORI… · Musée Marmottan Monet – Berthe Morisot Press dossier – February 2012