Berthe Morisot

Galerie Schmit, Paris

Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Morisot, 1961, no. 94

Marie-Louise Bataille & Georges Wildenstein, Berthe Morisot, Paris, 1961, no. 369 bis, illustrated p. 286
Alain Clairet, Delphine Montalant & Yves Rouart, Berthe Morisot, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Montolivet, 1997, no. 374, illustrated p. 296

Canvas is not lined. Surface is somewhat dirty. Canvas is buckling slightly at upper left corner. Under UV light: on tiny spot of inpainting to address loss at upper edge on right side, otherwise fine. Work is in excellent condition.
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In 1877 the critic Paul Mantz referred to Morisot as, "the one real Impressionist," whose work had, "all the frankness of an improvisation; it does truly give the idea of an 'impression' registered by a sincere eye and rendered again by a hand completely without trickery" (Kathleen Adler & Tamar Garb, Berthe Morisot, Oxford, 1987, p. 72). By 1894 when the present work was painted, Morisot had further developed the style admired by Mantz as evidenced by the rapid, flickering brushwork used to delineate the pair. Morisot was a pioneer among the avant-garde, not only because she was one of the few female members of the Impressionist group, but also because she approached portraiture with a distinctive style and intimacy that was unmatched by her contemporaries. 

Jeune femme et enfant, Avenue du Bois was completed during the last years of Morisot's life, when she was also working largely with pastel and watercolor.  We can see the influence of those media in the present canvas, which possesses the finish and luster of a traditional oil painting, as well as the exquisite touches of draftsmanship seen in works on paper. Morisot's palette here is comprised of soft, pearlescent colors, and she applies them to the canvas with individual strokes that mimic the effect of velvety pastels. Around the time that the artist was working on this canvas, she was also in frequent contact with her Impressionist colleague Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Jeune femme et enfant, Avenue du Bois evidences the strong influences the two artists had on each other's style, as Renoir was also incorporating a similar techniques and color schemes into his canvases during the early 1890s. 

Less finished than some of Morisot's other oils, the present work still captures all of her genius. In the words of the critic Jean Ajalbert writing in La Revue Moderne at the time of the Eighth Impressionist Exhibition in 1886, "If I may so express myself, she eliminates cumbersome epithets and heavy adverbs...Everything is subject and verb. She has a kind of telegraphic style gleaming with words. Two words express her thought" (quoted in Charles S. Moffett et al., The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, Geneva & San Francisco, 1986, p. 460).