December 2012 Newsletter: Berthe Morisot

[My desire] is limited to wanting to capture something that passes; oh, just something! the least of things. And yet that ambition is still unreasonable! A distinctive pose of Julie, a smile, a flower, a fruit, the branch of a tree, and every once in a while a more vivid reminder of my family, just one of these would suffice.    Berthe Morisot (1841-1895)

Self-portrait, 1885

As you probably already know, we have been studying the Impressionists in our Thursday evening acrylics class. We have learn a lot by observing their styles and techniques, then putting that knowledge to work with brush and canvas.  I have grown to adore this period in art. Not only were these artists courageous to buck the art establishment, they were also intensively creative. One such member is someone you probably never heard of before, although she sold more paintings  in her 54 years of life than Monet, Renoir, and Sisley.[1] Her name is Berthe Morisot, the first woman to join the Impressionists in 1874.

Born into a weathy family that had an artistic history, her grandfather being the Rococo artist, Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), Berthe and her sister were given a proper education that included music and art. One of her earlier instructors was Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875), who also taught Camillle Pissarro, another Impressionist. Corot was famous for painting outdoors and inspired many of the Impressionists to go outside to paint.  She also studied as a copyist with her sister at the Louvre museum, usually the only place a woman could learn since they were not allowed to attend art schools (in France).

As time and experience moved forward, Morisot became known as an excellent painter. She was even accepted into the annual, government-run, art exhibit, called the Salon, every year from 1864 to 1874. Many of the Impressionists were rejected from this event. 

Bertha Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets,
Manet 1872

In 1868 a memorable meeting occurred that changed everything:  she was introduced to Edouard Manet. They became fast friends and in time, he introduced her to the Impressionist group (or the Independents as they called themselves). One of Manet's famous paintings is of Morisot,which appears above. 

Within six years, Morisot joined the group and even married Manet’s younger brother Eugene. Traditionally, a woman was expected to stop her career (if she even had one) in favor of marriage, but in this case, Morisot kept on track. In fact, she became even more prolific, painting over 350 paintings in her eighteen years of marriage. It didn't hurt either that her husband was independently wealthy.  Most of her paintings were of the ordinary person, especially family life.

What I like most about studying Morisot is that you can actually see the Impressionistic influence, not so much with optical color or subject matter, but more so with how she changed her whites. For instance, the first painting below is a picture of her sister at a window. Notice the white—it's okay.

Young Woman Seated at a Window, 1869

Now notice the second one, painted in 1872. The colors in the white are more outstanding.

The Cradle, 1872

And her 1885 The Bath painting (below) has an even higher key and more colors in the whites.

The Bath. 1885

Many of Morisot’s paintings were of her beloved daughter, Julie (1876-1966), who eventually became an artist herself, and wrote the book, Growing up with the Impressionists.  

Sadly, Eugene Manet died in 1892 and then three years later after nursing Julie  back to health from influenza, Morisot came down with pneumonia and died at the age of 54. Julie was only 16 and was taken in by one of her aunts.

I was introduced to Berthe Morisot in the book, The Private Lives of the Impressionists, by Sue Roe. I liked it so much, I just bought myself a copy. I want to re-read it.

Next month, I will be discussing a third female Impressionist: Marie Bracquemont. In 1894, she was named one of "les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism alongside Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt.

---

[i] www.biography.com

Please note: Visual Journaling class meets December 2, 2012 instead of second Sunday.

 2013 Coming Attractions

I can't believe a new year is nearly a month away. What happened? Where was I in 2012? Very busy and time swept by like the wind.

Fortunately, I have some fun classes and workshops up ahead. I will be getting closer to giving you more information on our trip to England in the spring of 2014,  and I'm hoping to bring back the acrylics weekend workshop on Memorial Day weekend. Beyond those two, here are the studio classes and PCC workshops planned for next year. (Website will be updated in mid-December).

2013 Winter Classes

Glastonbury Studios

beginning the week of January 6

ending the week of February 10

Tuesday evenings $70/session

7-9 p.m.

Drawing Wild Animals/Mixed media

Wednesday mornings $70/session

10 to 12 noon

Sketch’n on the Go™

Sketching Botanicals/Pen and ink

Thursday evenings $85/session

6:30 to 9:00 p.m.

Intermediate Vincent Van Gogh

Visual Journaling $20 per class

Second Sunday of the Month

1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Please note:

December 2012 meeting, December 2

PCC Winter One-Day Workshops
10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sylvania campus

Saturday, January 12 

Basic Drawing One-Day Workshop

Saturday, January 26          

Visual Journaling Mixed Media and Collage One-Day Workshop 

Saturday, February 9

Painting: Mixing Colors with Watercolor and Acrylic One-Day Workshop

Saturday, February 23

Beginning Acrylic Painting One-Day Workshop

Saturday, March 2

Colored Pencil One-Day Workshop

Saturday, March 16

Travel Sketching One-Day Workshop

November Newsletter: Girl Power 19th Century Style

For the next several issues, I'm going to share with you some incredible stories about five incredible women: Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, Marie Bracquemond, Eva Gonzales and Camille Claudel. 

These aren't your ordinary run-of-the-mill women, who accepted that their lives would be confined to getting married, teaching or being a servant.  Instead, all of them fought and said, "I want something more" to everyone—to loved ones, to schools, to society. Each one knew what she wanted and against all odds, went after her dream in the field of art.

It’s hard to imagine that there was a time when women were not allowed to attend art school. Although some American schools were progressive enough to allow women to enter their academies, they restricted females from taking life drawing classes with nude models (oo, la, la) and were only allowed to attend on days when the boys weren't on campus.

Figure 1 Art-students and copyists in the Louvre gallery, Paris, 1868.

These women broke barriers unheard of, beginning in the mid-18^th century. Their struggles were difficult at times and desperate at others. In those days, art was considered a hobby for women, not a career!!  All five of these women ended up in Paris where they were only able to take classes from private tutors and/or register as a copyist at the Louvre (see fig. 1). They were forbidden entrance into École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts). Nevertheless, they made a place for themselves. 

Let’s begin with Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). She was born into an affluent Pennsylvanian family and at 15, entered the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, where she studied throughout the Civil War years. Since instruction for females was so restrictive at the academy, she decided to move to Paris in order to study the masters to the chagrin of her father. Thus In 1866, with her mother  and other family members as chaperones, Cassatt settled in Paris, where she studied under a private tutor from the Academy, named Jean-Léon Gérôme. 

Figure 2:  Cassatt's first entry in the
Salon: The Mandolin Player

Within two years Cassatt was admitted to the annual, government-run, Exhibition of the Works of Living Arts, or what is known as the Salon (see fig.2). This was a prestigious event for her. Not only was it difficult for most artists to be accepted, but even harder for women, who were represented by just over 10% of the exhibitors. One of the keys though to acceptance was to paint the way the jurors liked: historical or mythological subjects, conservative colors with little or no brush strokes. They must have liked what they saw because another work, Offering the Panal to the Bullfighter, was accepted in 1873, when she returned to Paris after visiting the U.S., Spain and other parts of France, along with working in Italy.

Figure 3: Litle Girl in an Armchair 1878, Oil
This painting was rejected by the Salon in 1878,
 notice the difference,

Then enters Edgar Degas (1834-1917)--a man she would befriend for the next forty years. Perhaps one could say, Cassatt's style changed upon their meeting (fig.3). She had admired his work for awhile, enamored by his use of rough strokes and color. There's even a story that says she used to push her nose against a storefront window to get a closer look at one of his paintings that was for sale.  

Breakfast in Bed, Oil, 1897
An example of Cassatt's many mother/child paintings.

From the start, Cassatt was highly influenced by Degas, eventually exhibiting with his fellow artists, the "Independents" or as we now know them today, the Impressionists. She was known for her mother and child paintings, although many critics couldn't get past the idea of the Madonna and Child, which she wasn't trying to portray. Instead, she, like the Impressionists, was painting people in everyday tasks. 

Degas and Cassatt, although friends for almost a half-century, would experience a turbulent relationship. Some say they had a love affair, some deny it. Both never married, but from what I can I gather, Degas was, what we would say today, a chauvinist. In fact, later when Cassatt left the Independents to work on her new love of drypoint and printmaking, he said, "I am not willing to admit that a woman can draw that well."   In the end, she got back at him, by submitting some of his work, unbeknownst to him, into an exhibit in New York City to fund the suffragette movement.

Figure 4: The Bath 1891

Being a fiercely independent woman, Cassatt left the Impressionist group, and struck out on her own. She put her efforts toward teaching and advising her brother and others in the development of collecting art. After attending an exhibit in 1890 of over 700 Japanese prints in Paris, she began working a series of prints using Drypoint, a delicate form of printmaking (see fig.4)

Figure 5  Sleepy Baby Pastel 1910

Unfortunately, Mary suffered from diabetes and poor eyesight. Some say that she dabbled in pastels (see fig. 5) for years because it allowed her more freedom and compensated for her disability. However, during the last five years of life, she gave up painting altogether. 

Through her continued efforts to promote the Impressionists' works and push for more exhibits in the U.S., I believe she could be called the Mother of American Impressionism. She has given us a legacy that few can match. No matter what the difficulty, she pushed forward.

There is a great clip from the movie Mary Cassatt: American Expressionist that you may want to check out.




Next month: Berthe Morisot