From the 20th of june to the 19th of november 2002
Every day between 9 a.m. and 19 p.m.
Berthe Morisot is no stranger to Martigny. During the Manet retrospective held at the Foundation in 1996, the famous painting "Berthe Morisot au bouquet de violettes", in Manet's admirable black hues, had already introduced the public to the intense and passionate gaze of this young artist, whose strong personality the painter had managed to convey with his brush.
Born in 1841 in Bourges, where her father was a prefect, after spending a provincial childhood, in 1855 Berthe moved with her family to Passy. She showed signs of a great talent from an early age and developed a keen interest in painting. In 1857, along with her two sisters, she was given her first drawing lessons by Chocarne and then by Joseph Guichard, a pupil of Ingres and Delacroix. This new teacher was to encourage Berthe and her sister Edma to copy the masterpieces on display in the Louvre. Of course, the Ecole des Beaux Arts did not accept the weaker sex until after 1897! She dreamt of landscapes, of space and, above all, of moving away from studio painting and academicism. It was around this time that Guichard presented her to Camille Corot, a follower of thematic landscape painting before the term had even been coined. Both sisters put a great deal of enthusiasm into their work at Ville d'Avray, where Corot lived. He proved to be a demanding teacher and presented them to Achille Oudinot, with whom Berthe and Edma were to work. It was Achille Oudinot who introduced them to Charles Daubigny. They displayed their work for the first time at the Salon in 1864. During that same year, on holiday in Normandy, they became friends with the painter Léon Riesener, whose enlightened opinions Berthe Morisot avidly sought. Every week, Berthe's parents welcomed several artists, painters and musicians to their home in the rue Franklin, an exceptional source of inspiration for the Morisot children. In 1865, Tiburce Morisot had a studio built for his two daughters in the garden of the house. In 1865, during the Salon, a critic pointed out "a delicate feeling for colour and light" in Berthe's paintings. In 1867, her palette gained in confidence as she succeeded in breathing life into light colours with a very personal sense of luminosity.
THE IMPRESSIONIST WOMEN
In 1868, Fantin-Latour presented Edouard Manet to Berthe Morisot at the Louvre. They quickly became firm friends and Berthe, captivated by the personality and the work of her illustrious elder colleague, became his model ! Though Berthe Morisot came under the influence of Manet, she never became his pupil. However she felt a great admiration for his art. Morisot was consumed by painting, which took up all of her days and she increasingly mixed in artistic circles. In 1869, during a stay with her sister Edma, who had moved to Lorient after her marriage, Berthe Morisot was inspired by oils to create paintings where the rigorous observation of the landscape and the feminine presence of Edma merge with a feeling of reverie. In July 1870, war broke out between France and Prussia, troubling the peace and quiet of the garden of the rue Franklin and disrupting the soft harmony of Berthe Morisot's painting and mobilising among others Manet, Degas, Bazille and Renoir. Berthe Morisot refused exile and remained in the rue Franklin for some time.
The hardships, the cold, the constant roar of the bombings affected her health and she never completely recovered from all these privations. The Morisot family took refuge in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Berthe dreamt of the sea breeze, the inactivity weighed on her and she left to join her sister in Cherbourg.
To convey the fluidity of the water and render the movement of the sea, Berthe Morisot covered the canvas with small separate strokes imbued with light. Attracted to watercolour, she devoted herself fully to it: her palette grew lighter. During a stay in Madrid in 1872, Berthe Morisot discovered the works of Velasquez and Goya. In 1873, the jury of the Salon only accepted one work by Morisot and works by other painters were refused. A wave of protests incited a group of unsatisfied artists that included Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, Degas and Renoir to create a "Société anonyme coopérative d'artistes, peintres et sculpteurs" who exhibited their works between the 15th of April and the 15th of May 1874 in the studios of the photographer Nadar. Monet's painting "Impression, soleil levant" was to give its name to the Impressionist movement. With works such as "Le Berceau" or "La Lecture", exhibited in Martigny, Berthe Morisot participated in this event that attracted over three thousand people in one month. Her presence symbolised her independence. Her former teacher Guichard was horrified but with the freedom of spirit that was so characteristic of Berthe Morisot, she was to regularly exhibit with the group.
In 1874, Berthe Morisot married Manet's brother, Eugène, an amateur painter, who also mixed with the literary crowd. Eugène and Berthe spent the summer of 1875 on the Isle of Wight, a place that inspired the young wife to paint beautiful oil canvases, revealing her maturation into an exceptional colourist. The couple's only daughter, Julie, was born in 1878 and became an object of wonder and a model for her mother. She participated in all the Impressionist exhibitions except for that of 1879, as she did not have enough canvases after Julie's birth. 1880 seems to be the year that marks Berthe Morisot's maturity. During the fifth Impressionist exhibition, she was even hailed as one of its stars. The compositions of her canvases achieved a perfect balance with a certain nervosity of touch and a harmony of colours. We also discover the element that characterised her work at the time, a very personal sense of transparency. Her watercolours, a technique at which Berthe Morisot excelled, exude a spontaneous subtlety that is full of charm.
In 1892, Berthe Morisot lost her husband, who joined his brother Edouard in the cemetery in Passy. She refused to succumb to nostalgia and spent a great deal of her time painting. She was given her first personal exhibition at Boussod and Valadon between the 25th of May and the 18th of June 1892, which won her real recognition among artists and art lovers alike. In 1894, she exhibited at the Libre Esthétique in Brussels, in particular "Intérieur" in Jersey, which is on show in Martigny and met with considerable success. During the same year, on Mallarmé's recommendation, the French state bought a painting from her entitled "Le Bal"; it was the second impressionist painting bought by the State (also on display in Martigny). These were to be the last moments of happiness. In February 1895, she took to her bed with the flu and died of pneumonia at the age of 54.
In 1896, during the posthumous retrospective at Durand Ruel, organized by Degas, Monet and Renoir with a foreword by Mallarmé, the critics and art lovers were unanimous in acknowledging her talent and were even surprised that her work had remained so unknown to the general public for such a long time. The freshness of her work, her delicate way of capturing the light, the sensuality of her chromatic range, make her an artist with an accurate and simple style, whose intimacy and measured happiness merge with day to day life.
he exhibition will bring together 140 works: oils, pastels, watercolours, dry point, a bust and a relief demonstrating Berthe Morisot's diversity and formal studies. This exhibition, whose scientific preparation and catalogue were put in the hands of Hugues Wilhelm and Sylvie Patry, was organised in cooperation with the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Lille.
The catalogue (only in french)
The catalogue contains colour reproductions
of each of the exhibited works: Swiss Francs: 45 - (around 30 euro)
Autors: Sylvie Patin, Sylvie Patry, Hughes Wilhelm
Pages: 464 pages, french
Price: aligned SFr. 45.-, euro 31,50,
linked SFr. 58.-, euro 41.--
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