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A young woman with pale peach skin and light brown hair sits in profile facing our left in an upholstered chair in this vertical painting. The chair and woman take up most of the composition so seems close to us. She wears a long-sleeved white dress that sweeps to the floor, with black ribbons around her neck and atop her shoulder-length ringlets. The dress has small ruffles at her throat and a deep flounce at the bottom. She gazes down at the partially open fan she holds on her lap. The fan is touched with spots of pumpkin orange, plum purple, and royal blue on a beige background. Loose, swirling brushstrokes in golden tan and bright white against an ivory background suggest that the chair is upholstered with a floral-patterned fabric. A wooden desk or table is pushed against the wall behind the woman to our right and to our left, a white door, covered by a white curtain, opens onto a balcony with a wrought iron railing. Across the street, a couple of people lean out of open windows covered by turquoise-blue awnings on a cream-colored building.

Berthe Morisot

The Artist's Sister at a Window, 1869

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 54.8 x 46.3 cm (21 9/16 x 18 1/4 in.)

framed: 74.93 × 67.31 × 10.8 cm (29 1/2 × 26 1/2 × 4 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

Accession Number

1970.17.47

Artists / Makers

Berthe Morisot (artist) French, 1841 - 1895

Image Use

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Provenance

From the artist to her sister, Mme. Pontillon, Paris; by inheritance to her daughter, Mme. E. Forget, Paris, by 1941;[1] Ernest Rouart [1874-1942], Paris.[2] Capt. Edward H. Molyneux [1891-1974], Paris, France, by 1952; sold 15 August 1955 to Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York; bequest 1970 to NGA.

[1] Lent by Mme Forget to 1941 exhibition at the l'Orangerie in Paris.

[2] Listed as Ernest Rouart collection in 1945 exhibition at Durand-Ruel in Paris. See letter from Charles Durand-Ruel dated 20 December 1977 in NGA curatorial files. Roart was married to the artist's daughter, Julie Manet, and thus the cousin of Mme. Forget.

Associated Names

Bruce, Ailsa Mellon, Mrs.
Forget, E., Mme
Molyneux, Edward H., Captain
Pontillon, Mme
Rouart, Ernest

Exhibition History

1870: Salon of 1870, Paris, no. 2040

1919: Possibly Cent oeuvres de Berthe Morisot, Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1919, no. 6

1941: Berthe Morisot, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1941, no. 7

1949: Berthe Morisot, NY Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 1949, no. 2, repro.

1950: Berthe Morisot, The Arts Council of Great Britain, 1950, no. 2, repro.

1952: French Paintings from the Molyneux Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1952, unnumbered checklist, as Portrait of Madame de Pontillon, repro. (identified with wrong title).

1961: French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century from the Collection of Mrs. Mellon Bruce, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1961, no. 30, repro., as Portrait of Mme. Pontillon

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 93, repro., as The Artist's Sister, Madame Edma Pontillon.

1986: Capolavori Impressionisti dei Musei Americani, Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples; Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, 1986-1987, no. 34, repro.

1987: Berthe Morisot, Impressionist, National Gallery of Art; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA, 1987-1988

1989: Impressionisti della National Gallery of Art di Washington, Ala Napoleonica e Museo Correr, Venice; Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1989, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1990: Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990, no. 51, repro.

1992: From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metroplitan Museum of Art, New York, National Gallery of Greece, Athens, 1992-1993, no. 56, repro.

1999: Around Impressionism: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, no cat.

1999: Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 27, repro.

2002: Berthe Morisot, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille; Fondation Pierre Gianadda Martigny, Switzerland, 2002, no. 6, repro. (shown only in Lille).

2006: Berthe Morisot: Regards Pluriels - Plural Vision, Musée de Lodève, 2006, no. 4, repro., as Young Woman at a Window.

2008: Impressionist Interiors, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 2008, no. 21, fig. 1.

2012: Berthe Morisot, 1841-1895, Musée Marmottan-Claude Monet, Paris, 2012, no. 8, repro.

2013: Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art, Museo dell'Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome (exhibition title in this venue: Impressionist Gems); California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, Seattle Art Museum, 2013-2016.

2018: Berthe Morisot: Woman Impressionist, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec City; Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia; Dallas Museum of Art; Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 2018-2019, no. 16 (French catalogue); no. 9 (English catalogue), repro.

Bibliography

1961: Bataille, M.L., and Georges Wildenstein. Berthe Morisot, catalogue des peintures, pastels et aquarelles. Paris, 1961: no.18.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 248, repro.

1978: Small French Paintings from the Bequest of Ailsa Mellon Bruce. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978: 36, repro. (continuing exhibition beginning in 1978).

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 459, no. 663, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 286, repro.

1990: Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum. Exh. cat. Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990: no. 51, repro.

1991: Coman, Florence E. Joie de Vivre: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1991: no. 18, repro.

1996: Roos, Jane Mayo. Early Impressionism and the French State (1866-1874). Cambridge, 1996: 139-140, 143, fig. 107.

1997: Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA: One Hundred Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. St. Louis, 1997: 124-125, 208-209, color repro.

1998: Adler, Shane. “Whiteness." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:939.