BERTHE MAKES A GOOD IMPRESSION

Berthe Morisot was an outstanding artist, yet is not often featured - her pictures are brilliant examples of fast strokes of the brush that give a light and luminous quality to her intimate scenes from Parisian middle-class life.  Born into a prosperous family, her mother was able to support two artistic daughters and encouraged them to paint what contemporary society would appreciate and buy.  Berthe was a prominent member of the mostly male group of Impressionists and married Eugene Manet who gave up his own career as an artist to support and further hers.  She had the great gift of being able to lift mundane subects and scenes with a light touch  into something beautiful and rare.  The picture of a young girl getting ready for a party has a very touching simplicity and we enter the debutante's world of expectation and awe as she tends her charming hair-style.   The patterns on her dress, the curtains and the walls are indeed only impressions, but we know the period is late 19c. and the girl is dressed in  typical Art Nouveau style,  and the many different textiles, and shades of colour and texture,  show a
great deal of skill.