Book Description

Accompanying a major traveling exhibition, this comprehensive volume examines Berthe Morisot’s remarkable body of work, painterly innovations, and leading role within the Impressionist canon. Today Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) is considered a major Impressionist artist, a recent development despite the respect received in her lifetime from peers Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. As the only female member of the Impressionist group at its founding in late 1873, Morisot played a major and multifaceted part in the movement, and her works were prized by pioneering dealers and collectors. Lush illustrations from throughout Morisot’s career depict her daring experimentations and her embrace of modern subjects in the city and at the seaside: fashionable young women, and intimate, domestic interiors. Texts examine her in the context of her contemporaries, the critical reception of her work, the subjects and settings she chose, and the state of Morisot scholarship. Berthe Morisot, Woman Impressionist makes an important contribution to the field, with never-before-published letters, interdisciplinary scholarship, and a specific focus on Morisot’s pioneering developments as a painter first, woman second.