The Museum of Women Impressionists

           I would like to establish a small museum featuring the work of the women 
Impressionists. Berthe Morisot, a founder of the movement, contributed paintings to all 
but one of the exhibitions. Mary Cassatt contributed to four shows, and Marie 
Braquemond’s work appeared in three shows before her husband discouraged her further 
involvement with the Impressionists. Eva Gonzalès never participated in an Impressionist 
exhibition, but as a protégé of Edouard Manet, her style fit within the parameters of 
Impressionism, so I’m including her work in my museum.

            This imaginary museum is not available to tour via Google Art Project, so you’ll
have to use your imagination. I’ll be your decent as we peruse works by the women of Impressionism that include scenes of daily life, featuring family members and friends. Let’s start in the main gallery with a theme that all four artists interpreted--women reading. These paintings are meant to convey that their subjects are intelligent, educated women--reading the newspaper was thought to be especially significant. The outdoor readers show the Impressionist artists fascination with the effects of natural light. When the content of these roughly-contemporary paintings is similar, the differences in each artist's style becomes clear.

                                                    Woman Reading (Cassatt, 1879)

                                                 Reading in the Forest (Gonzalès, 1879)

                                                   Afternoon Tea (Braquemond, 1880) 

                                                       Reading (Morisot, 1873)

     Morisot and Cassatt were the two most active Impressionist painters, so let’s take a 
look at some of their work in this next room. Morisot was as devoted to her sister, Edma, 
as Cassatt was to her sister, Lydia. That closeness and intimacy can be seen in The Sisters 
(Morisot, 1869) and Two Sisters (Cassatt, 1906). Both feature the accessory du jour—a 
Japanese fan. A difference between the works is that Morisot’s was in oil on canvas, while 
Cassatt’s visible marks were made by pastels. 

                                                                                                                                                                                    


         


                                                                                                                                                                         In Mother and Sister of the Artist (Morisot, 1869) and Portrait of Katherine Kelso Cassatt (1889), the artists portray more family members. Although these women are imposing black, pyramidal figures, both Morisot and Cassatt were devoted to their mothers. Is it any coincidence that Cassatt began her series of famous paintings of mothers and children after her mother died?

    











          Both Summer’s Day (Morisot, 1870) and Summertime (Cassatt, 1894) feature women enjoying boating, probably on the lake in the Bois de Boulogne. You might have noticed that all of these Cassatt works were created 20 years or more after Morisot’s counterparts. Was her scene of ladies at leisure and ducks floating on light-dappled water an homage to her old colleague and competitor?

            In a small side room, we can see comparable works by Morisot and Gonzalès, Getting Out of Bed (1886), and Awakening Girl (s.d.). Where Gonzalès depicts an idealized, soft-focus scene of a sensuous young woman rising lying on a ruffled pillow beneath a diaphanous canopy, Morisot portrays a more innocent looking young girl. 

          And notice the different take on seeing and being seen at the theater in Gonzalès’s Box at the Italian Theater (1874) and Cassatt’s Woman in Black at the Opera (1877-78). We know that Cassatt's woman is attending a matinee, as she wears daytime attire, not an evening gown. It's interesting to note that while she observes the crowd, a gentleman in the background is observing her. Gonzalés's subject has set her opera glasses down for a moment, but her companion is scrutinizing someone outside the frame of the picture.

            An alcove is devoted to Braquemond’s luminous, almost-life-sized masterpiece, On the Terrace (1880), which leaves us wondering how this artist's work would have progressed if she had had the opportunity to continue painting
.

            Marie Braquemond turned her artistic talents to china painting. Gonzalès died of childbirth fever in her 30's. Morisot died at age 54. Cassatt lived the longest, until 1926. She saw WWI and women’s suffrage bring women’s lives out of the domestic sphere. But their work documenting the daily lives of women in the late 19^th c. lives on in the Museum of Women Impressionists.