The Bowl of Milk by Berthe Morisot - 1890 - 54.9 x 56.2 cm private collection The Bowl of Milk by Berthe Morisot - 1890 - 54.9 x 56.2 cm private collection

The Bowl of Milk

oil on canvas • 54.9 x 56.2 cm
  • Berthe Morisot - January 14, 1841 - March 2, 1895 Berthe Morisot 1890

As it's March, and we are celebrating Women's History Month, please enjoy today's story about Berthe Morisot. The only female member of the original French Impressionists besides the American, Mary Cassatt, Morisot brought a fresh perspective to avant-garde art at the turn of the century. Denied the same privileges as her male counterparts had, her paintings provided insight into aspects of French society and a platform for feminine subjects and concerns that remained unexplored by her male colleagues. She explored themes of modernity, class, and gender through the prisms of contemporary bourgeois and family life.

The Bowl of Milk depicts a local girl named Gabrielle Dufour from Mézy, a village near the Seine valley northwest of Paris where Berthe Morisot and her family spent some time. Morisot portrays the young girl in the middle of her chores holding a bowl of milk to her chest, staring at the viewers with an innocent yet unwavering gaze. Notice how Morisot used her characteristically loose and broadly sketched brushstrokes. It is not a coincidence. The free-flowing brushwork and lush coloration are typical of the mature style that Morisot developed in the 1880s, when Morisot departs from her earlier influences—among them her brother-in-law Édouard Manet—and starts to develop a distinctive approach more comparable with the techniques of Claude Monet. Monet himself recognized and appreciated Morisot’s tribute; he thought of it highly enough to immediately acquire her paintings for his personal collection.

P.S. If you've never heard of Berthe Morisot, it's high time to change that! Read her story of womanhood, excellence, and resilience. <3

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