About the
Exhibition
Impressionism is arguably the world's most popular art movement.
Berthe Morisot: An Impressionist and Her Circle establishes
the artist as a central figure of the movement, showing her paintings,
prints, watercolors, and drawings alongside those of her more
recognized male colleagues: Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste
Renoir, and Claude Monet. Visitors will be able to view more than
75 works-about 15 of them by her artistic circle and her daughter,
Julie-drawn from one of the most important French collections
of avant-garde painting, the Denis and Annie Rouart Collection,
and on display for the first time in the U.S. Bequeathed to the
Musée Marmottan-Monet in Paris in 1997, some of these works
date from the artist's original collecting efforts.
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Berthe
Morisot
The Cherry Tree, 1891
Oil on canvas
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris,
France/Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library |
Morisot succeeded
as a professional artist, despite society's expectations for women
from respectable upper-middle-class families, to acquire artistic
training as a genteel hobby.
Her budding
artistic talent, and that of her older sister Edma, was nurtured
by visits to the Louvre to copy masterpieces and painting out
of doors under the direction of legendary landscape painter Camille
Corot. She first exhibited at the illustrious annual Salon in
1864, at the age of 23, and continued to participate through 1873
despite the fact that her sister eventually married, thereby giving
up her own artistic career. However, Edma, her mother, and other
women close to her continued to provide Morisot with the strength
and companionship that enabled her boldly to defy convention for
the sake of her art. Their influence is also apparent in the numerous
images that Morisot painted of her mother, sisters, and nieces,
as well as of her own daughter Julie, to whom she gave birth in
1878, and who would become her favorite model and painting companion.
Carefully composed, these studies not only highlight Morisot's
abilities but confirm the lifelong inspiration she drew from these
women.
Always one to follow her beliefs, Morisot accepted an invitation
by Edgar Degas in 1874 to join a fledgling group of painters,
including Monet, Renoir, and Camille Pissarro, who later became
known as the Impressionists. In joining the group she went against
the advice of her longtime friend Edouard Manet, who became her
brother-in-law when she wed his brother Eugène and who
had a tremendous influence on her work. The Impressionists declared
that Morisot's pictorial technique, with her loose brushstrokes,
unfinished backgrounds, and light-infused color, exemplified their
aesthetic aims. Morisot remained faithful to the Impressionists
after others abandoned the movement, participating in seven of
the eight exhibitions and single-handedly organizing the final
show in 1886. She continued to paint and exhibit in her later
years, receiving her first solo exhibition only a few weeks after
her husband's death in 1892.
By juxtaposing
Morisot's work next to that of her circle and examining her life
and relationships, this exhibition hopes to help visitors understand
her legacy as a full-fledged Impressionist: a champion of individuality,
creativity, and modernity.
The exhibition
is generously sponsored by PNC.
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