Berthe Morisot and the Art of the 18th century

   Berthe Morisot: Au bal   (At the ball) 1875

As a core Impressionist painter, Berthe Morisot was interested in portraying modern scenes and was present at 7 out of 8 Impressionist exhibitions. She had a lightness and elegance all of her own. The exhibition at the Musée Marmottan Monet compares her graceful style to that of the 18th century.

The ivory fan in the above painting belonged to her own collection; it features a romantic scene between a shepherdess and birdkeeper:

   

Fan: La Bergère et l'Oiseleur ca 1760-1780 Ivory and gouache on paper

Two portraits of Berthe Morisot are exhibited - one a self portrait, where she appears as an artist confident in her profession:

Morisot: Self Portrait 1885 (aged 44)

The sketchiness and natural pose, as if caught spontaneously, would have appealed to the 18th century.

The second portrait of Berthe Morisot was painted 10 years previously by fellow woman artist- Marcello, alias Adèle d'Affry, the duchess of Castiglione Colonna:

Marcello: Portrait of Berthe Morisot 1875 

Berthe was 34. Her colleague Marcello, 5 years Berthe's senior, lived on the first floor of the Riesener mansion on the Cours la Reine, Paris, where Berthe Morisot's good friend Rosalie Riesener lived. 

From her early years, Berthe lived surrounded by the art collection of her father:                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Ardant du Masjambost: Portrait of Prefect Edmé Tiburce Morisot 1848

  While working as Prefect (official Administrator) in Limoges, then Caen, Berthe's father amassed a sizeable collection of art with a view to founding a museum. He admired the 18th century masters, which were not so fashionable in his day. Around the mid 19th century, works by artists such as Boucher and Fragonard, previously considered frivolous, started to be rehung in the Louvre, as fashion changed again.                                                                                                                                                                                                       

François Boucher: Vulcain prėsentant des armes pour Enée à Vénus (Vulcan presenting arms for Aeneas to Venus) 1756 (detail)

Boucher's work still hangs in the Louvre, where Berthe Morisot and many others, copied it. A black and white sketch of it is included in the exhibition. Morisot had a special liking for Boucher. 

She copied the sensual pair of nymphs at the top and used the piece for her personal decoration in her home, until she replaced it with a Monet:

      
     

Berthe Morisot: detail of Venus asking Vulcan for arms, after François Boucher 1883-84

                                                                                                                                                                        Morisot's good friend, Rosalie Riesener, was a descendant of cabinet maker Jean-Henri Riesener and lived in an elegant 18th century decor. In Morisot's portrait, Rosalie sits below a Boucher tapestry:

Morisot: Rosalie Riesener-Pillaut Intérieur d'appartement 

The portrait has been lent by the Château St-Germain-de-Livet in Normandy which houses works by Léon Riesener, Rosalie's father, and by Rosalie herself. Léon was an excellent pastellist with an extraordinary sense of colour. His oils and pastels were revealed to the French public at the Salon in the 1840s and 50s. An example of his work, in the Marmottan exhibition, is the portrait of his daughter:

Léon Riesener: Portrait of Rosalie Riesener 1866

The 18th century was the century of portraits and intimate settings, as well as being the period of great pastelists such as Quentin de la Tour or Rosalba Carriera. A superb copy by Degas in oils of a  pastel portrait which was owned by his father, Auguste, is on show:

Degas: Portrait of a man, after Quentin de la Tour or Jean Valade  ca 1873-76

Morisot knew of Degas' interest in 18th century pastels. This was at the same time when Degas was inviting Berthe Morisot to exhibit with him at the first Impressionist exhibition. Morisot is quoted as saying that she loved either new things or things from long ago ( 'choses de jadis'). Her own style is distinctly modern, but with the grace of olden times:

Morisot: Jeune femme arrosant un arbuste (Young woman watering a bush) 1876

Loaned by the Virginia Museum, Richmond, the graceful back view of her sister's dress is very similar to the kind of image painted by Fragonard and Watteau:

Jean-Honoré Fragonard: Jeune femme debout, en pied, vue de dos (Young woman, standing, backview) ca 1762-5 Sanguine

Although 18C painters had been considered as decadent in the first half of the 19thC by such authorities as the Beaux Arts School, they were gradually being rehabilitated by art critics like the Goncourt brothers. An exhibition of over 300 works was no doubt seen by Berthe Morisot in 1860 at the Martinet Gallery, on the grands boulevards.

Antoine Watteau: Les Plaisirs du Bal (The pleasures of the ball) ca 1715-17

Watteau's ambiguous setting, neither inside nor outside, is echoed in Morisot's back view of her sister above. This delightful  18th century work has been lent by the Dulwich Picture gallery, London, where the exhibition was showing until September, in partnership with the Musée Marmottan Monet.

Fragonard, with his lightness of touch, might be a worthy Impressionist (!): 

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Jean-Honoré Fragonard: La leçon de musique (The music lesson) 1769 Louvre

Morisot left a sketch of this work in one of her sketchbooks, present in the exhibition. The rumour that Berthe was actually related to Fragonard has finally been laid to rest by the curators of the Marmottan exhibition. It was apparently started by an art critic named Philippe Burty who compared the two artists' style of painting. This lent a certain credibility and authority to the works of a modern-female- painter. Berthe's contemporary- Jacques Emile Blanche- in 1892 wrote about the 'great niece' of Fragonard, meaning Morisot. The rumour was consecrated by Mallarmé in 1896, at the posthumous exhibition of Morisot's works.  Berthe's daughter Julie Manet in memory of this 'spiritual' lineage, donated a Morisot pastel to the Fragonard Museum down in Grasse.

The exhibition draws interesting comparisons between English artists of the 18th century and Morisot:

George Romney: Mrs. Mary Robinson ca 1780-81 (The Wallace Collection, London)

Morisot: Dame au manchon ou Hiver (lady wth muff or Winter) 1880 Dallas Museum of Art

It is a pleasure to see such works displayed side by side, brought from a great distance apart by the commissaires of the exhibition.

Morisot's portrayals of youthful faces are set next to English 18th century artist Joshua Reynolds:

Sir Joshua Reynolds Angel Faces ca 1876-7 Tate Gallery, London

Morisot: Enfants à la vasque (Children with a basin) 1886 

Morisot Tête de fillette (Julie Manet) (Head of girl Julie Manet) ca1889 pastel Private Collection

Morisot: Fillette au jersey bleu (Girl in blue jersey) 1886 pastel

Any frivolity and licentiousness associated with Boucher or Fragonard is absent from Morisot. The sensuality is of a different kind:

François Boucher: detail from Apollon révélant sa divinité à la bergère Issé (Apollo revealing his divinity to the shepherdess Isse) 1750

Morisot's copy of the Boucher above 1892

Morisot's modern realism contrasts with Boucher's eroticism and Perronneau's delicacy in the portrayal of his sleeping wife:

Morisot: Repos (Jeune fille endormie) (Rest, Young girl asleep) 1892 Private Collection

François Boucher: Jeune fille endormie (Young girl asleep) Fondation Jacquemart-André, Chaalis 

Jean-Baptiste Perronneau: Mme Perronneau endormie (Mme Perronneau asleep) ca 1766 Galerie Franck Baulme

  

Morisot's portrait of a young lady about to go to a ball is usually to be found in the Musée d'Orsay:

Morisot: Jeune femme en toilette de bal (Young lady in ball gown) 1879

The Exhibition at the Marmottan provides us with a fascinating dialogue between the art of Morisot and the art of the 18th century.

"Berthe Morisot and the Art of the 18th century" at the Musée Marmottan Monet, on the Western side of Paris until 3rd March 2024.

Musee Marmottan Monet, 2 rue Louis-Boilly, 75016 Paris

Open Tuesdays to Sundays (closed Mondays) from10am to 6pm (Thursdays until 9pm)

Metro: La Muette

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