Young Woman with a Straw Hat

1884

Berthe Morisot

Artist, French, 1841 - 1895

Shown from the waist up, the profile of a pale-skinned woman wearing an ice-blue dress is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes in this vertical portrait. The woman’s body faces our right, and she looks slightly down with her pale pink lips parted. A floppy straw hat is tied over her copper-blond hair with a plum-purple ribbon and tied in a bow beneath her chin. The bow appears to be nearly as wide as her shoulders, and the ribbons hang down almost to her belly button. Her dress has a high, ruffled neckline along the back of the neck and long sleeves. A few flecks of lapis blue suggest polka dots, and a blue belt wraps around the waist. The background is especially loosely painted with strokes of aqua blue and bright, bottle green that suggest an outdoor setting and few touches of coral red in the lower corners could be flowers.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 55.5 × 46.7 cm (21 7/8 × 18 3/8 in.)
    framed: 71.76 × 62.23 × 8.89 cm (28 1/4 × 24 1/2 × 3 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1970.17.49

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Heirs of the artist; sold 1899 to (Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris);[1] sold 28 February 1912 to Albert Barnes [1872-1951];[2] sold 27 November 1936 to Galerie Étienne Bignou, New York.[3] (Carroll Carstairs Gallery, New York); sold 17 January 1941 to Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York;[4] bequest 1970 to NGA.
[1] According to Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Morisot heirs (probably her daughter Julie Rouart) had initially sold the artist’s Devant la glace to Durand-Ruel at the 1 May 1899 Galerie Georges Petit sale (no. 67). However, immediately after the sale, the Morisot family exchanged that painting with Young Woman with a Straw Hat (Durand-Ruel stock no. 5176, photo no. 1287). See email of 4 June 2024 in NGA curatorial file. The painting was exhibited by Durand-Ruel at the Grafton Galleries in London in 1905.
[2] Barnes sent the artist William Glackens [1870–1938] to France in early 1912 to purchase modern French art for him. See email of 29 January 2015 from Bill Scott about the purchase of this painting in NGA curatorial file. The receipt dated 28 February 1912 from Durand-Ruel to William Glackens, in the Albert C. Barnes Correspondence, Barnes Foundation Archives, Philadelphia (AR.ABC.1912.50) is digitized online at Barnes Foundation correspondence spotlights portal (accessed 30 July 2024); copy in NGA curatorial file.
[3] Amanda Knight of the Barnes Foundation Archives, in email of 6 August 2024, kindly provided the letter of 27 November 1936 from Barnes to Georges Keller, director of the Bignou Gallery, New York, that confirmed the sale as well as the follow up letter of 28 November 1936 from Keller regarding payment. See the Albert C. Barnes Correspondence, Barnes Foundation Archives, Philadelphia (AR.ABC.1936.66); copies in NGA curatorial file. Keller later became the director of the Carstairs Gallery.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1896

  • Berthe Morisot, Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1896, no. 46.

1905

  • Pictures by Boudin, Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, Grafton Galleries, London, 1905, no. 167.

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. 31, repro.

1966

  • French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 92, repro.

1984

  • Loan to display with permanent collection, Oklahoma Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, 1984-1986.

1989

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

1999

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

  • Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 29, repro.

2006

  • Berthe Morisot: Regards Pluriels - Plural Vision, Musée de Lodève, 2006, no. 8, repro.

2011

  • Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The National Art Center, Tokyo; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, 2011, no. 36, repro.

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 (shown only in Québec City and Philadelphia), no. 7.

Bibliography

1933

  • Angoulvent, Monique. Berthe Morisot. Paris, 199: no. 150.

1961

  • Bataille, M.L., and Georges Wildenstein. Berthe Morisot, catalogue des peintures, pastels et aquarelles. Paris, 1961: no. 155.

1975

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

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 459, no. 665, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 287, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20189735

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