id: 148371 accession number: 1975.83 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1975.83 updated: 2023-08-31 11:02:27.637000 Young Saint John, 1890. Berthe Morisot (French, 1841–1895). Pastel on pale blue laid paper; 57.1 x 38.1 cm (22 1/2 x 15 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Lewis B. Williams 1975.83 title: Young Saint John title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1890 creation date earliest: 1890 creation date latest: 1890 current location: creditline: Gift of Mrs. Lewis B. Williams copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: pastel on pale blue laid paper department: Drawings collection: DR - French type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: Bataille and Wildenstein 558; Angoulvent 410 --- 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: 57.1 x 38.1 cm (22 1/2 x 15 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: French Art Since Eighteen Hundred opening date: 1929-11-08T05:00:00 French Art Since Eighteen Hundred. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 8-December 8, 1929). title: Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot opening date: 1993-11-07T05:00:00 Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 7, 1993-January 2, 1994). title: Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2016-11-19T05:00:00 Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 19, 2016-March 19, 2017). title: Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2023-01-20T05:00:00 Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-April 30, 2023). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Berthe Morisot, exposition de son œuvre. Durand-Ruel, Paris (March 5–21, 1896). --- PROVENANCE Mr. [1874–1942] and Mrs. [1878–1966] Ernest Rouart, Paris date: after 1896 footnotes: citations: (Durand-Ruel, Paris) date: 1896 footnotes: citations: Private collection date: 1896-by 1929 footnotes: citations: Mr. [1880–1966] and Mrs. [1879–1980] Lewis B. Williams, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: by 1929-1975 footnotes: citations: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1975- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: This pastel's first owner was Berthe Morisot's daughter, Julie Manet, and her husband Ernest Rouart. digital description: In the spring of 1890 Berthe Morisot and her husband, Eugène Manet, rented a house with a garden overlooking the Seine River in the rural French town of Mézy. Morisot worked in the attic studio while the pair was there. A young boy from the village served as the model for this pastel, one of several studies for a full-length painting of Saint John the Baptist with his cross. In this drawing, Morisot developed the loose and sketchy marks that would characterize her final canvas. wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Berthe Morisot, exposition de son œuvre. Exh. cat. Paris: Durand-Ruel, 1896. page number: Mentioned: p. 30, no. 184 url: “Studio-Talk,” The Studio 42 (1908): 318-20. page number: Reproduced: p. 318 url: Fourreau, Armand. Berthe Morisot. Paris: F. Rieder, 1925. page number: Mentioned: p. 25; Reproduced: pl. 27 url: Angoulvent, Monique. Berthe Morisot. Paris: Albert Morancé, 1933. page number: Mentioned: p. 138, no. 410 url: Bataille, M.-L. and G. Wildenstein. Berthe Morisot: Catalogue des peintures, pastels, et aquarelles. Paris: Beaux-Arts, 1961. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 58, no. 558 url: Stuckey, Charles F. “Berthe Morisot.” In Charles F. Stuckey, Willam P. Scott, and Suzanne G. Lindsay. Berthe Morisot: Impressionist. Exh. cat. South Hadley, MA: Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, 1987. page number: Mentioned: p. 145 url: Shennan, Margaret. Berthe Morisot: First Lady of Impressionism. Phoenix Mill, UK: Sutton, 1996. page number: Mentioned: p. 15 url: Salsbury, Britany. “Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: Acquiring the now-on-view Cleveland collection.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 63, no. 1 (2023): 8-9. page number: Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 9. url: https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2023-01/page/n7 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1975.83/1975.83_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1975.83/1975.83_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1975.83/1975.83_full.tif