NARRATOR:
In 19th-century France, most young upper middle-class women received a basic education in the arts, but few were encouraged—or even allowed—to pursue professional careers. Berthe Morisot defied society’s expectations, earning both critical acclaim and commercial success as a painter. She made this work in 1874, on a summer trip to the Normandy coast with her sister. They stayed with the family of Berthe’s colleague, the celebrated artist Edouard Manet. That summer, Berthe would accept Manet’s brother’s proposal of marriage.
Some scholars have noted that Morisot, unlike her male contemporaries, often shows women indoors or in sheltered locations. Here, she depicts her sister sitting on a high terrace, waiting to receive a visitor who climbs a stairway from below. The sitter is further removed from the sunny beach and glistening blue-green sea by a dark wooden railing. Her young daughter peers over it, perhaps drawn by activity below.
Morisot’s subject matter may be appropriate to her time and social class, but she handles paint with a freedom that belies limitations. Clothing… architectural details… the soft, grey curtains… the foliage to the left…—all are painted with short, quick, suggestive strokes of color that create a spontaneous impression of a moment. On the sitter’s charcoal skirt, fluid white scribbles add a sense of energy to the foreground that contrasts with the smooth handling of the languid sea beyond—and perhaps conjures up small waves lapping at the shore.
In a Villa at the Seaside
1874
Berthe Morisot (French, 1841-1895)
On View
Raised in a privileged Parisian milieu, Morisot was the only woman to contribute to the first exhibition of the avant-garde Impressionist group, which opened in the spring of 1874. She painted this picture the following summer, during a joint vacation on the Normandy coast by the Morisot and Manet families. It was during this trip that Morisot became engaged to Manet’s brother, Eugène. Using radically simplified means (a few wispy strokes describe the seated figure’s veil; the sea and sky are flat as the canvas on which they’re painted), Morisot conjured a comfortably bourgeois scene. Her models were most likely her sister Edma and Edma’s daughter. Their pointed remove from the beach confirms their middle-class respectability—and, indeed, that of the painter herself.
Details
- Artist Name: Berthe Morisot (French, 1841-1895)
- Title: In a Villa at the Seaside
- Date: 1874
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 19-3/4 x 24 in. (50.2 x 61 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1979.21.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
Probably sold by artist at (sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot , 24 March 1875, lot 21, as Chalet au bord de la mer, for Ffr 230 to Henri Rouart);
[Ernest?] Hoschedé [(1837-1890), Paris].
Edgar Degas Estate, Paris, by 1896 (sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 26-27 March 1918, lot 83, as Femme et enfant sur une terrasse au bord de l’eau, to);
[Paul Rosenberg, Paris, buying for];
Mme. Fernand Halphen, Paris, by inheritance to;
Georges Halphen, Paris, sold 1 May 1979 to;
[Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, stock no. 6037, sold 1/2 share to [Galerie du Cirque, Paris], sold 12 June 1979 to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
[Ernest?] Hoschedé [(1837-1890), Paris].
Edgar Degas Estate, Paris, by 1896 (sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 26-27 March 1918, lot 83, as Femme et enfant sur une terrasse au bord de l’eau, to);
[Paul Rosenberg, Paris, buying for];
Mme. Fernand Halphen, Paris, by inheritance to;
Georges Halphen, Paris, sold 1 May 1979 to;
[Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, stock no. 6037, sold 1/2 share to [Galerie du Cirque, Paris], sold 12 June 1979 to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Berthe Morisot (Madame Eugène Manet)...Exposition de son oeuvre
- Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, 1896-03-05 to 1896-03-21
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best,2010, cat. 1611 pp. 426-427
- Angoulvent, Monique, Berthe Morisot,no. 43
- The Private Collection of Edgar Degas: A Summary Catalogue,no. 897
- Thomson, Belinda and Michael Howard, Impressionism, pp. 126-127
- Katerina Atanassova, et al., Canada and Impressionism: 1880-1930,2019, 5.2 p. 73 ; p. 75 (ill.)
- Angoulvent, Monique, Berthe Morisot,no. 43
- Patin, Sylvie, Berthe Morisot 1841-1895,color fig. 5 p. 47
- Schirrmeister, Anne, Perspectives on Morisot,n. 13, fig. 7-4 pp. 107-110, 115
- Bataille, Marie-Louise and Georges Wildenstein, Berthe Morisot. Catalogue des peintures, pastels et aquarelles,no. 38, pl. 6
- North American distribution, plus 10% international; English language; Initial print run on VHS and DVD to total 10,000 copies, Impressionism (college-level course on video tape, narrated by Richard Brettell),
- Higonnet, Anne, Berthe Morisot's Images of Women, pp. 36, 112
- Rey, Jean Dominique, Berthe Morisot, p. 24
- Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1,2006,
- Lewis, R. and S. Lewis, The Power of Art,fig. 14-43 p. 349
- Adler, Kathleen and Tamar Garb, Berthe Morisot,fig. 35 pp. 92, 120
- Facos, Michelle, An Introduction to Nineteenth-Century Art,2010, Fig. 12.13 p. 326
- New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Private Collection of Edgar Degas,n. 211, fig. 158 pp. 43, 71, 124
- Manet, Julie, Growing up with the Impressionists: The Diary of Julie Manet, p. 90
- Kleiner, Fred, Gardner's Art Through the Ages: A Global History,2013, 28-7 p. 805
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum,1989, p. 135
- Clairet, Alain and Delphine Montalant and Yves Rouart, Berthe Morisot 1841-1895: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint,no. 38 p. 132
- Herbert, Robert, Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society,fig. 286 p. 280
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