Musee d'Orsay: Berthe Morisot

We first became acquainted with the work of impressionist Berthe Morisot at the Marmottan-Monet Museum in 2014, where they had collected many of her works for an exhibition. The day we were at the Orsay was the opening of that museum's first major exhibition of Morisot works, 6 or 7 rooms, 50 or so paintings. About a third of the paintings were from museums, world-wide, many of them famous; the rest were from private collections, from all over the world. It must have been quite a challenge to curate! No better illustrated than by the fact that Manet's portrait of her had to stay with its collection in the Orsay, downstairs and across the tracks. See below. I took only a few pix, mainly because the rooms were crowded and intense and because the paintings from private collections generally prohibited photography. Nonetheless, a rare privilege to see so many of her works in one place.

Woman and Child at a Balcony, 1871-72; from the
Bridgestone Museum, Tokyo

Her Marine, 1869; Lorient, in Brittany; Manet pronounced this a masterpiece;
she later married his brother, Eugene, and was known and admired by the leading
painters of the day; National Gallery of Art, DC

 

La Psyche, 1876; Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Summer, or a Young Woman by a Window, 1879

Three titles, this one: In the Garden, or Women Gathering Flowers, or In the Bois
de Boulogne; 1879, National Museum, Stockholm

 

La Lecture, 1888; perhaps her daughter Julie; St. Petersburg (FL)

 

Lucie Leon at the Piano, 1892

Julie Manet at the Violin, 1893; her daughter; private
collection; Berthe Morisot died at the age of 45, caring for
her sick daughter

Downstairs and across the tracks, as I said, in a permanent
collection, is Manet's 1872 Berthe Morisot au bouquet de
violettes

Another great visit to another great place!