Berthe Morisot. Pivoting from photography, and in light of your recent painting and our talks about the artistic process…I wanted to introduce you to Morisot. She remains almost entirely forgotten merely because of her gender. A remarkable force in the impressionist movement in the mid 1800s, even her parents warned her of pursuing art. An early teacher once wrote of her…”Given your daughters’ natural gifts, it will not be petty drawing-room talents that my instruction will impart; they will become painters. Are you fully aware of what this means? It will be revolutionary - I would say almost catastrophic - in your high-bourgeois milieu.” (google that!).
She met and worked with Corot (one of my all time favorite landscape painters) and later met Manet and was deeply influenced by Manet’s revolutionary use of black in his paintings. She later married his younger brother. In hindsight, her work was lauded for its focus on the female experience. Her male contemprories were centered on city life where she looked to family and friends. Perhaps taking inspiration from Cezanne, she soon fully embraced the “unfinished” canvas, often revealing rough brushstrokes, grounding, and artifacts from previous works.
She wrote in her diary in the late 1800s, “I don’t think there has ever been a man who treated a woman as an equal. Thats all I would have asked for - I know I am worth as much as they are. “
