GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Berthe Morisot spent the winter of 1881–1882 with her family on the Mediterranean coast in Nice, France. As she often did while traveling, Morisot brought along her plein-air (outdoor) painting kit and worked outside when the weather permitted. The city’s port, a sheltered marina filled with boats (fig. 1), became the subject of eight watercolors and oil paintings the artist completed during her stay.
The example of this subject from the Reves Collection exemplifies the bold, almost abstract style that distinguishes Morisot from the French Impressionist group she helped to found. To avoid onlookers on the crowded dock, she painted aboard a boat in the harbor. Morisot’s rapid application of fluid, gestural brushstrokes simulates the effect of lapping waves and dancing light on the water’s surface.
More than any of her contemporaries, Morisot deliberately pushed the boundary between preparatory sketch and completed painting in her work. Her inclusion of a similar painting in the 7th Impressionist Exhibition of 1882 was harshly criticized for its perceived lack of finish. One journalist declared, “when one has, like her, good sense and talent, one mustn’t make fun of the public like this.”
Excerpt from
Nicole Myers, label text, 2018.
NOTES
Created in 1881-1882
Richard Brettell, Impressionist Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection (Dallas Museum of Art, 1995), 81.
Berthe Morisot and her husband, Eugène Manet (the brother of Edouard Manet), spent the cold winter months of 1881-1882 in the Mediterranean port of Nice at the fashionable Hôtel Richmond, where the artist practiced her technique on the most shifting of subjects - the harbor. Although brisk, the weather was warm enough to allow her to work out-of-doors or, at the very least, from her hotel window, as the wonderful light of the French Riviera inspired her to trap its effects on the water in paint. This small painting is among the most successful of the several she made on that campaign, and the artist chose it for inclusion in the penultimate impressionist exhibit of 1882. The paint was barely dry on the canvas when she had it framed and took it to the galleries, where it hung almost like a watercolor amid larger and bolder works by her male colleagues.
"The Port of Nice" is a study in modesty and apparent carelessness. Its strokes, of varying dimensions, textures, and lengths, force the viewer to think of the representation "as" a painting. Many of her strokes, especially those in the large area of the water, refuse to "represent" anything other than themselves, suggesting that the water was too choppy to reflect the buildings, boats, or riggings. The boldest and most fundamental decisions made by Morisot were about composition, and they were clearly made before she even began to paint. First, she decided to downplay the sky, preferring to study the effect of light on form. Second, she decided to push the boats and buildings into a band at the top of the painting. This led her to order the area of the water by placing the bow of the boat as it enters the water directly at the center of the composition. Hence, the composition is controlled and deliberate, even though it appears to be random.
Morisot's achievements as a painter can be set into relief when one compares this small canvas with the almost exactly contemporary painting by Georges Seurat in the Reves Collection. [see Dallas Museum of Art, 1985.R.68] Whereas Seurat's painting is stiffened with an apparent rigor of composition, Morisot's seems inchoate. Yet, just the opposite is true: not a single line or form is placed in a geometrical manner in Seurat's painting, whereas Morisot's canvas is held together with a rigorous logic. For Morisot, the "touch" was informal and the composition was formal. For Seurat, the opposite was true.
Berthe Morisot and her family spent the winter of 1881-82 in the Mediterranean port of Nice, which she recorded in a series of watercolors and oil paintings notable for their sketchlike appearance. Morisot constructs a landscape with a high horizon line, as if her gaze were tilted down to study more closely the dancing reflections on the surface of the water. Her brushwork is quick and open, and the paint is thinly applied, leaving many areas of bare ground visible. Morisot often worked in oil paint almost as if it were the more translucent medium of watercolor. One of her early teachers had gently reprimanded her for "having made oils express what belongs exclusively to the domain of water." By the time of her Nice paintings, Morisot had mastered the art of fluidity and transparency in any medium.
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Excerpt from
Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2015.
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Depicted location and place of origin: Nice: TGN: 7008773
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- National Museum of Women in the Arts~Learn more about Berthe Morisot.
- Musee d'Orsay~Check out this portrait of Berthe Morisot painted by Edouard Manet.
- YouTube~Watch this video from ArtFundUK titled "Berthe Morisot: Inventing Impressionism."
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General Description
Berthe Morisot spent the winter of 1881–1882 with her family on the Mediterranean coast in Nice, France. As she often did while traveling, Morisot brought along her plein-air (outdoor) painting kit and worked outside when the weather permitted. The city’s port, a sheltered marina filled with boats (fig. 1), became the subject of eight watercolors and oil paintings the artist completed during her stay.
The example of this subject from the Reves Collection exemplifies the bold, almost abstract style that distinguishes Morisot from the French Impressionist group she helped to found. To avoid onlookers on the crowded dock, she painted aboard a boat in the harbor. Morisot’s rapid application of fluid, gestural brushstrokes simulates the effect of lapping waves and dancing light on the water’s surface.
More than any of her contemporaries, Morisot deliberately pushed the boundary between preparatory sketch and completed painting in her work. Her inclusion of a similar painting in the 7th Impressionist Exhibition of 1882 was harshly criticized for its perceived lack of finish. One journalist declared, “when one has, like her, good sense and talent, one mustn’t make fun of the public like this.”
Excerpt from
Nicole Myers, label text, 2018.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- National Museum of Women in the Arts~Learn more about Berthe Morisot.
- Musee d'Orsay~Check out this portrait of Berthe Morisot painted by Edouard Manet.
- YouTube~Watch this video from ArtFundUK titled "Berthe Morisot: Inventing Impressionism."
Notes
Created in 1881-1882
Richard Brettell, Impressionist Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection (Dallas Museum of Art, 1995), 81.
Berthe Morisot and her husband, Eugène Manet (the brother of Edouard Manet), spent the cold winter months of 1881-1882 in the Mediterranean port of Nice at the fashionable Hôtel Richmond, where the artist practiced her technique on the most shifting of subjects - the harbor. Although brisk, the weather was warm enough to allow her to work out-of-doors or, at the very least, from her hotel window, as the wonderful light of the French Riviera inspired her to trap its effects on the water in paint. This small painting is among the most successful of the several she made on that campaign, and the artist chose it for inclusion in the penultimate impressionist exhibit of 1882. The paint was barely dry on the canvas when she had it framed and took it to the galleries, where it hung almost like a watercolor amid larger and bolder works by her male colleagues.
"The Port of Nice" is a study in modesty and apparent carelessness. Its strokes, of varying dimensions, textures, and lengths, force the viewer to think of the representation "as" a painting. Many of her strokes, especially those in the large area of the water, refuse to "represent" anything other than themselves, suggesting that the water was too choppy to reflect the buildings, boats, or riggings. The boldest and most fundamental decisions made by Morisot were about composition, and they were clearly made before she even began to paint. First, she decided to downplay the sky, preferring to study the effect of light on form. Second, she decided to push the boats and buildings into a band at the top of the painting. This led her to order the area of the water by placing the bow of the boat as it enters the water directly at the center of the composition. Hence, the composition is controlled and deliberate, even though it appears to be random.
Morisot's achievements as a painter can be set into relief when one compares this small canvas with the almost exactly contemporary painting by Georges Seurat in the Reves Collection. [see Dallas Museum of Art, 1985.R.68] Whereas Seurat's painting is stiffened with an apparent rigor of composition, Morisot's seems inchoate. Yet, just the opposite is true: not a single line or form is placed in a geometrical manner in Seurat's painting, whereas Morisot's canvas is held together with a rigorous logic. For Morisot, the "touch" was informal and the composition was formal. For Seurat, the opposite was true.
Berthe Morisot and her family spent the winter of 1881-82 in the Mediterranean port of Nice, which she recorded in a series of watercolors and oil paintings notable for their sketchlike appearance. Morisot constructs a landscape with a high horizon line, as if her gaze were tilted down to study more closely the dancing reflections on the surface of the water. Her brushwork is quick and open, and the paint is thinly applied, leaving many areas of bare ground visible. Morisot often worked in oil paint almost as if it were the more translucent medium of watercolor. One of her early teachers had gently reprimanded her for "having made oils express what belongs exclusively to the domain of water." By the time of her Nice paintings, Morisot had mastered the art of fluidity and transparency in any medium.
----------
Excerpt from
Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2015.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location and place of origin: Nice: TGN: 7008773
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
rules
Apply To
Objects
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1985.R.40
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