Berthe Morisot Exhibition
Berthe Morisot: An Exhibition of her Paintings
About the Artist
The Dulwich Picture Gallery has staged a small exhibition of Berthe Morisot's work focused exclusively on her paintings. Morisot came from a well to do family and was properly trained as an artist so she was able to pursue a career to a professional level. She was a founding member of the Impressionist Group in Paris in the 1870s.
The paintings show a consummate talent which, combined with proper training, brought her early esteem as well as allowing her to compete equally - from an art education point of view - with the most fashionable painters of the period.
Women in French Society
The image on the right is a detail from a painting of her teenage daughter.
Not many images of teenage girls by French Impressionist artists look like this. Most of the artists who were able to pursue a career to this level were men and their interest in women and girls was, for the most part, sexual or near enough.
Female subjects were pictured in social environments where middle and upper class males made free with, for the most part, working class girls. The dynamic ranges from voyeuristic to mildly abusive to grossly abusive. Don't get me wrong, there are some brilliant paintings but once you know about the society portrayed in them, it's hard not to be a bit cynical.
Morisot was an exception simply because she was female and upper class. Class advantage gave her the training which gave her the discipline to paint well but not the liberty to go to bars and clubs. A chaperone was required for outdoor painting so she concentrated on women she knew and painted them indoors.
Painting outside
If Morisot was painting 'en plein air,' she painted models but even then, her social class demanded she have a chaperone even if the models weren't considered worthy of 'protection.'
The second image, below left, is a detail from 'Summer's Day,' 1879. It shows two women in a boat on the lake in the Bois de Boulogne, near where Morisot lived. Both women are models and they appear again, in another painting in this exhibition, this time pictured on a bench in the park. The chaperone was required for the bench painting but not for the boat. Men were not able to harass them floating on water in a boat so the situation was less compromising and probably gave them all a bit of peace.
The art of painting
What most struck me about Morisot's painting though is just how virtuoso she was. That relaxed, loose brushwork has enormous authority. That takes confidence. She painted from life and all her figures - the women and girls she paints - have an absolutely solid presence. There's nothing fay or uncertain here.
I also greatly admired the endless shades of white and the use of green light on the faces of the young women. Her portrayal of women in stays all look uncomfortable not decorative. It's such a palpable difference.
Conclusion
An exhibition devoted solely to Morisot's work is a welcome change from the the 'Impressionist Blockbusters' which have filled our galleries and museums for the last fifty years or so. Dulwich Picture Gallery has reminded us of an important artist with an original and telling vision. It is the first survey of her work since 1950. That's seventy-three years ago! It speaks volumes about the female in/equlity in the arts, but particularly in Museums and in our National Collections.
She show runs until September 10th. You still have time and the Dulwich Picture Gallery permanent collection is well worth your time too.