Berthe Morisot

Berthe Morisot, Portrait de Madame Pontillon, the artist's sister at a window (1869, National Gallery of Art, Washington).
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«Born into a bourgeois, but rather open, family, Berthe et her sisters took private drawing classes while growing up : in the 19th century, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts was still out of bounds for women. The young girls executed their first copies at the Louvre in 1858 : Calvary andThe Meal at Simon’s, after Veronese, reveal Berthe’s undeniable talent. However, it is with Corot, who initiated her into the technique of outdoor painting, that she would develop her taste for light effects as of the 1860’s (View of Tivoli, 1863). This decade, which marked her entrance to the Salon and set the foundation for her art, is (…) illustrated here with (…) one work, the Portrait of Madame Pontillon (…). We see already Berthe’s audacity and modernity asserted in a free, light and visible touch, the transparency of the matter, the presence of natural light and the clarity of the palette. The extraordinary treatment of the white fabrics, worthy of a Whistler, reflect a rare mastery, impressionist before her time. (…)»

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Sylvie Blin (2012) - exposição Berthe Morisot, em Paris, no Musée Marmottan Monet (8/3 a 29/7/2012).