Berthe Morisot - An Impressionist And Her Circle

LOUISVILLE, KY.

:An enigmatic, strong-willed and gifted artist, Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) was the first woman to be at the core of a successful male/female modern art movement. An integral member of the artistic circle of the Impressionists, she exhibited paintings of intimate domestic interiors, portraits, garden scenes, landscapes and coastal views in all but one of their shows, 1874-1886.

Her friends and fellow Impressionists Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, along with her mentor and greatest admirer, Edouard Manet, considered Morisot their artistic equal. Juxtaposing her work with theirs, this exhibition does a fair job of documenting reasons for this assessment. At her best, Morisot was a wonderful painter - the consummate Impressionist and the most faithful to the movement.

The show also offers insights into social history - suggesting how Morisot successfully balanced individuality, creativity and modernity with a happy domestic life and motherhood to establish a professional career that defied traditional expectations of women in her day.

"Berthe Morisot: An Impressionist and Her Circle" started its tour at the National Museum for Women in the Arts, where it was organized by Jordana Pomeroy, curator of painting and sculpture before 1900. Said Director Judy L. Larson, "Morisot's rightful place in the history of art is at the heart of our mission at the Women's Museum."

Comprising more than 75 paintings on loan from the Museé Marmotten Monet in Paris, the exhibition is on view at Louisville's Speed Art Museum through September 18, and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis from October 7 to January 26.