id: 135405 accession number: 1958.41 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.41 updated: 2019-11-18 10:47:55.321000 Mlle. Louise Riesener, 1888. Berthe Morisot (French, 1841-1895). Charcoal and pastel; sheet: 56 x 47 cm (22 1/16 x 18 1/2 in.); framed: 75.3 x 66.2 x 4.5 cm (29 5/8 x 26 1/16 x 1 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. 1958.41 title: Mlle. Louise Riesener title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1888 creation date earliest: 1888 creation date latest: 1888 current location: creditline: Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: charcoal and pastel department: Drawings collection: DR - French type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Berthe Morisot (French, 1841-1895) - artist
Born into a prosperous family, Berthe Morisot was encouraged at an early age to become an amateur artist. Along with her sister Edma, she began her studies with Geoffroy-Alphonse Chocarne (act. 1838-1857), a painter trained in the neoclassical tradition. In 1858 the sisters entered the studio of Joseph-Benoît Guichard (1806-1880), a student of Ingres (q.v.) and Delacroix (q.v.). Through Guichard they met Corot (q.v.) in 1861, under whose encouragement they began to paint out of doors near Pontoise as well as in Normandy and Brittany. Berthe Morisot exhibited at the Salon from 1864 until 1873. Fantin-Latour (q.v.) introduced her to Manet (q.v.) around 1867. They developed a close friendship, and Morisot modeled for him many times (see Manet, Berthe Morisot, no. 141). In 1874 she married his brother, Eugène, and that same year began participating in the impressionist exhibitions, never to show at the Salon again. Four years after their marriage, the couple's only child, Julie, was born on 14 November 1878 and would become a main source of artistic inspiration. Morisot matured as a central member of the group of impressionists. Her home became a meeting place for painters and writers alike, including Renoir (q.v.), Degas (q.v.), Mary Cassatt (1845-1926), and Stéphane Mallarmé. She participated in the Drouot sale of 1875, where the artists were ridiculed extensively. Her paintings, however, fetched slightly higher prices than those of Renoir, Monet (q.v.), and Sisley (q.v.). Morisot made pastels and watercolors as well as oil paintings, and during the final years of her life she experimented with lithography and drypoint etching.
--- measurements: Sheet: 56 x 47 cm (22 1/16 x 18 1/2 in.); Framed: 75.3 x 66.2 x 4.5 cm (29 5/8 x 26 1/16 x 1 3/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Form in the Arts opening date: 1959-06-15T04:00:00 Form in the Arts. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 15-November 10, 1959). title: Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot opening date: 1993-11-07T04:00:00 Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 7, 1993-January 2, 1994). title: Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2000-08-27T00:00:00 Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000). title: Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2006-05-27T00:00:00 Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008). title: Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in Nineteenth-Century Paris opening date: 2012-10-04T00:00:00 Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in Nineteenth-Century Paris. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 14, 2012-January 20, 2013). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Georges Levy, NY date: footnotes: citations: Jacques Seligmann & Co., NY date: footnotes: citations: Georges Levy, NY; Jacques Seligmann & Co., NY date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: This pastel portrays Morisot’s friend, the daughter of Léon Riesener, a Romantic painter and a first cousin of Eugène Delacroix. Here she pays homage to the pastel portraits of her friend and mentor Edouard Manet, who had used the medium with exquisite spontaneity in the years leading up to his death in 1883. She restricted herself to the limited palette of Manet’s pastels, using only black and white, with touches of pink at the mouth and blue to enliven the eye. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.41/1958.41_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.41/1958.41_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.41/1958.41_full.tif