: 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.
