Description

Berthe Morisot original charcoil drawing 1891

Work has been drawn on handmade ragpaper

Titled : ‘Portrait de jeune fille au repos’

Handsigned bottom right

Size : 32 x 22 cm

Bought in 1982 from the Farsettiarte Gallery, Milano, Italy

Comes with a Certificato di Autenticità

Info on Berthe Morisot :

Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (French: 14 January 1841 – 2 March 1895) was a French painter, printmaker and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists.

In 1864, Morisot exhibited for the first time in the highly esteemed Salon de Paris, listed as a student of Joseph Guichard and Achille-Francois Oudinot. Her work was selected for exhibition in six subsequent Salons until, in 1874, she joined the “rejected” Impressionists in the first of their own exhibitions (15 April – 15 May 1874), which included Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. It was held at the studio of the photographer Nadar. Morisot went on to participate in all but one of the following eight impressionist exhibitions, between 1874 and 1886.

Morisot was married to Eugène Manet, the brother of her friend and colleague Édouard Manet.

She was described by art critic Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of “les trois grandes dames” (The three great ladies) of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt.

It is hard to trace the stages of Morisot’s training and to tell the exact influence of her teachers because she was never pleased with her work and she destroyed nearly all of the artworks she produced before 1869.

During this period, Morisot still found oil painting difficult, and worked mostly in watercolors. Her choice of colors is rather restrained; however, the delicate repetition of hues renders a balanced effect. Due to specific characteristics of watercolors as a medium, Morisot was able to create a translucent atmosphere and feathery touch, which contribute to the freshness of her paintings.

Having become more confident about oil painting, Morisot worked in oil, watercolors and pastel at the same time, as Degas did. She painted very quickly but did much sketching as preparation, so she could paint “a mouth, eyes, and a nose with a single brushstroke.” She made countless studies of her subjects, which were drawn from her life so she became quite familiar with them. In 1874, Berthe’s submission to the Salon was rejected; it would be the last time she would submit a piece to the exhibition. That same year, Berthe showed ten works at the First Impressionist Exhibition, notably being the only woman who exhibits.

During Morisot’s 1874 exhibition with the Impressionists, such as Monet and Manet, Le Figaro critic Albert Wolff noted that the Impressionists consisted of “five or six lunatics of which one is a woman…[whose] feminine grace is maintained amid the outpourings of a delirious mind.” But Morisot’s mature career began in 1872. She found an audience for her work with Durand-Ruel, the private dealer, who bought twenty-two paintings. In 1877, she was described by the critic for Le Temps as the “one real Impressionist in this group.”

After 1885, drawing began to dominate in Morisot’s works. Morisot actively experimented with charcoals and colored pencils. Her reviving interest in drawing was motivated by her Impressionist friends, who are known for blurring forms. Morisot put her emphasis upon the clarification of the form and lines during this period. In addition, she was influenced by photography and Japonisme.

Because she was a female artist, Morisot’s paintings were often described as being full of “feminine charm” by male critics, noting their elegance and lightness. After 1885, she worked mostly from preliminary drawings before beginning her oil paintings. She often worked in oil paint, watercolors, and pastel simultaneously, and sketched using various drawing media. As such, Morisot’s works are almost always small in scale.