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Video: How the first impressionist woman, Berthe Morisot, conquered the world
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Berthe Morisot is a French impressionist painter who depicted a wide range of subjects on her canvases (from landscapes and still lifes to home scenes and portraits). Growing up in a traditional stereotypical society that did not allow the development of female artists, Morisot was able to make her integral and significant contribution to the history of art and even surpass many of the male impressionists. Berthe Morisot became the first woman impressionist in history.
Bertha's family
Berthe Morisot was born on January 14, 1841 in Bourges, France. Berthe Morisot's father was a high-ranking government official, and her grandfather was the influential Rococo artist Jean-Honore Fragonard. Bertha and her sister Edma showed their artistic talent as a child. And despite the gender stereotypes of the time (women were not allowed to participate in official art communities), the sisters managed to earn respect in creative circles thanks to their natural talent. Like Marie Braccumont, Mary Cassatt and other famous female artists of the era, Morisot avoided urban street scenes and nude figures portrayed by Impressionist men. Bertha focused on everyday scenes of everyday life, focusing on scenes of boats, gardens, home interiors and portraits of family and friends that epitomize the comfort and warmth of family life and friendship.
To gain experience, the sisters went to Paris in the late 1850s. There they studied painting and copied the works of the Louvre under the direction of Joseph Guichard. They also took painting lessons from the landscape painter and artist of the Barbizon School, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, who imparted to them the knowledge of outdoor work. Bertha first exhibited her work at a prestigious state salon in 1864. After a successful debut, she won the right to participate in the salon for the next 10 years. Sponsored by the government and graded by academics, the Salon was the official, annual exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Meet the Manet brothers
In 1868, Berthe's colleague, Henri Fantin-Latour, introduced her to Edouard Manet. They developed a strong friendship in 1874, she married, but not to Edouard himself, the revered modernist artist of the 19th century, but to his brother Eugene Manet. The marriage provided her with social and financial stability, which made it possible for him to fully engage in what he loved - painting. Family ties with the Manet brothers significantly influenced Morisot's work, impressionist notes appeared on her canvases. She also became friends with the impressionists Edgar Degas and Frederic Bazille.
Morisot's work
Her fascination with impressionism was so great that she first refused to participate in the official salon in 1874. Instead, she decided to take part in the "rejected" first independent impressionist show, which included works by Degas, Camille Pissarro, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley. Among the paintings that Morisot showed at the exhibition were The Cradle, The Harbor at Cherbourg, The Game of Hide and Seek, and The Reading.
When Berthe Morisot and her husband began building a new home in 1883, she deliberately left out a separate studio. Bertha was distinguished by her special nepotism and femininity. Therefore, in order not to disturb the overall harmony of the house, Morisot asked the architect to make a separate hidden cabinet for her. And when guests came to the house, Berta hid her paints, canvases and brushes in the closet so that the general atmosphere of the house was not lost.
After Eugene's death in 1892, Berthe Morisot continued to paint. Never achieving commercial success, she still surpassed Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. Bertha was a woman of great culture, pure talent and charm. Bertha's works, with a delicate and finely chosen palette of exquisite colors - often with a muted emerald glow - won the admiration of her Impressionist colleagues.
On the other hand, her themes, which focused on household chores, motherhood and children, were at times seen as a mere expression of her feminine nature, but rarely seen as a serious manifestation of artistic talent or a depiction of a new urban bourgeois way of life.
Heritage
Morisot's first solo exhibition took place in 1892, and two years later the French government acquired her oil painting Young Woman in a Ball Gown. During her life, Moriro sold about 30 paintings. Considering that she did not need to provide for herself, she conceded her canvases at prices below market prices. Of the 850 paintings, pastels and watercolors that she created during her career, most remain in her family's collection.
Once, in a letter to her sister, Berta wrote: “It seems that I have lived my life without achieving anything, selling my works at low prices. It's terribly depressing. By the way, Edma received her art education from Bertha, but gave up painting when she got married.
Berthe Morisot's death certificate stated "no profession." A 1926 essay by the poet and philosopher Paul Valéry, titled Aunt Berthe, identified Morisot's paintings with the nineteenth-century women's journaling practices, perpetuating the pioneering artist's strange, amateurish gaze. But Morisot was not just an amateur: her contribution to the history of art is gradually being revived, revealing her views on women's everyday life. Berthe Morisot suffered pneumonia and died on March 2, 1895 at the age of 54.
Today the names of the great impressionist painters are known all over the world. And the question is puzzling why the public was making fun of the impressionists known today … But it really was
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