Berthe Morisot: An Impressionist And Her Circle

Morisot was born in Bourges, France, into a well established, upper-middle-class family that moved to Paris when she was 11. Her father, a prominent civil servant, provided his daughters a privileged upbringing that included tutors in languages, literature and, starting in 1857, art.

Berthe and her sister Edma copied Old Masters at the Louvre, and learned to paint en plein air from Barbizon master Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Edma abandoned art after her marriage, but Berthe persevered in pursuit of a career as a professional artist. As art historian and Morisot biographer Anne Higonnet has written, "She worked, not for money, but with lucid detachment, intellectual rigor, and aesthetic integrity."

In 1868, Morisot met innovative painter Manet, who became her great friend and coach, and who encouraged her to push herself as an artist. She welcomed his advice, and in return, is often credited with opening Manet's eyes to the use of brilliant, fractured color and the practice of painting outdoors.

Manet painted her 11 times, including the strikingly intense "Portrait of Berthe Morisot Reclining," 1873, which captures her beauty and magnetism. She married Manet's brother Eugéne in 1874, when she was 33.

Unlike most other significant woman artists of the Nineteenth Century, such as Cecilia Beaux and Mary Cassatt, Morisot bucked convention by marrying, leading a full personal life - and flourishing in her profession. "At every moment in her career she negotiated a narrow but almost uncannily astute path between the demands of society and those of art," says Higonnet.

One of Morisot's favorite portrait subjects was her daughter Julie (1878-1966), whom she taught to paint, and who traveled and sketched with her mother. As early as 1888, Monet called Julie her mother's "lovely little future competitor."

In spite of her artistic gifts and friendship with Impressionist leaders, Julie eventually opted for marriage over a professional career.

"Julie and her Greyhound Laertes," 1893, is Morisot's affectionate likeness of her beloved daughter and dog. Not to be outdone, the next year Renoir conveyed the teenager's winsome looks in his "Portrait of Julie Manet," 1894.

In 1874, at the invitation of Degas, Morisot joined the group of independent avant-garde painters that became known as the Impressionists. She showed with them in seven of their eight exhibitions (missing only the year she gave birth to Julie) including the final one, which she organized, in 1886.

At first, the Impressionists were derided and dismissed by the art establishment. Critic Albert Wolf, for example, described the group as "five or six lunatics, one of whom is a woman... In her [Morisot], feminine grace is preserved amidst the frenzy of a mind in delirium." Her husband wanted to challenge Wolf to a duel, but Morisot took the criticism in stride, writing an aunt that "We are being discussed, and we are so proud of it that we are all very happy."

Morisot always painted standing up, walking back and forth in front of her canvases, staring intently at her subject, and then applying brushstrokes in a quick, confident manner. This technique gave her art a refreshingly distinctive look. There is no doubt about her dedication: "Work," she once wrote her sister, "is the sole purpose of my existence."

Morisot's mature art, characterized by flickering color, calligraphic brushwork and sketchlike appearance, looked spontaneous. This was at odds with contemporary thinking about the finished look of oils, and thus led to frequent criticism that her paintings lacked finishing touches.

Her compelling, sketchily painted "Self-Portrait," 1895, shows Morisot standing at an easel, holding a brush and palette, and exuding strength and self-confidence. This unusually frank and revealing likeness is another high point of the exhibition. Higonnet observes that Morisot painted "some of the great self-portraits of the Nineteenth Century."

In keeping with the times, Morisot socialized with and made portraits of well-to-do women. As a member of her social class, Edouard Manet could paint Morisot's portrait, but it would have been improper for her to paint men. The exception was her husband, whom she depicted in numerous works.

Like many of her artistic colleagues, Morisot often left Paris for the countryside during summer months. At a rented place in a hamlet west of Paris on the Seine River, she created the charming "Eugéne Manet and his Daughter in the Garden at Bougival," 1881. It is a rare depiction in Western art of fatherhood. A color-filled closeup of an effulgent garden, "Hollyhocks," 1884, is another captivating work.

As demonstrated by fine examples in the "Manet and the Sea" exhibition [see Antiques and The Arts Weekly, October 23, 2003], Morisot's seascapes are among her finest works. During family trips to Brittany, Normandy and Provence, she focused on oils and watercolors of harbors and the play of light on the ocean.

"Boats under Construction," 1874, a small oil painted while vacationing in Fecamp, uses loose brushwork, softened forms and light-infused colors to convey the boat building ambience of the site. A highlight of the exhibition, "Eugéne Manet on the Isle of Wight," 1875, is a delicate work in which short, choppy brushstrokes delineate jewel-like flowers glimpsed by her husband looking out a window toward the sea.

Several examples in the show demonstrate how well she grasped Corot's technique of painting from nature. She interpreted the Bois de Boulogne in Paris as an oasis of nature, depicting its trees, land and lakes to evoke the beauty of changing seasons.

Late in her career, Morisot experimented with more highly finished oil paintings and rapidly executed drawings on varied subjects. A dry point, "Nude from the Back," 1889, recalls Degas' studies of women bathers, as well as Cassatt's celebrated works on female themes.

The largest painting in the show, and one of the best, is "The Cherry Tree," 1891, which curator Pomeroy calls an exemplar of "the art of painting - the application of paint. It tells us much about where the Impressionists were heading in the 1890s." Measuring 605/8 by 311/2 inches, this oil showing two women picking cherries is reminiscent of Renoir's style.

When Morisot died suddenly at the age of 54 in the influenza epidemic of 1895, her Impressionist colleagues deeply mourned her passing. Fellow founding member Pissarro wrote his son that "this distinguished woman...brought honor to our Impressionist group."

A subtext to the exhibition is the campaign by Morisot's daughter to promote her late mother's art. Julie Manet, orphaned at 16, worked with her two guardians, poet Stéphane Mallarmé and Renoir, along with Degas and Monet, to organize an acclaimed retrospective in 1896.

Introduced by Degas, in 1900 she married Ernest Rouart, an amateur painter and son of wealthy collector and artist Henri Rouart. Works by the couple are displayed in the exhibition, as are paintings by Henri Rouart, who participated in Impressionist shows.

The impressive trove of works of art that Julie inherited from her mother, including paintings by Morisot and her peers, combined with works assembled by the Rouarts, formed one of the most important French Impressionist collections. Samples are displayed here for the first time in this country. Standouts include a portrait by Degas of a bearded, top-hatted Henri Rouart and Monet's large and harmonious "Water Lilies" of 1915.

While lacking many of Morisot's most celebrated works, this exhibition effectively demonstrates her strengths and accomplishments as an artist period - and, moreover, as a woman artist. By sheer determination and undeniable artistic gifts, Morisot boldly defied convention to become one of the finest painters of her time. It is good for Americans to see examples of the achievements of this underappreciated talent.

An interesting, informative and well-illustrated 124-page catalog published in English by the Denis and Annie Rouart Foundation and the Museé Marmottan Monet, Berthe Morisot or Reasoned Audacity, accompanies the exhibition. It is priced at $29.95 (softcover). Higonnet's insightful biography, Berthe Morisot, published in 1990, is another invaluable source of information.

The Speed Art Museum is at 2035 South Third Street. For information, 502-634-2700 or www.speedmuseum.org.

The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is at 1934 Poplar Avenue in Memphis, Tenn. For information, 901-544-6200 or www.brooksmuseum.org.