The Artist's Sister, Edma, with Her Daughter, Jeanne (recto); The Artist's Sister Edma Seated Outdoors (verso)

1872

Berthe Morisot

Associated Names
Berthe Morisot

Artist, French, 1841 - 1895

This painting shows two people sitting together on a sofa, a woman on the right and a child on the left. The woman is turned slightly towards the child as she leans against one of the arms of the sofa. She wears a light-colored dress with a blue floral pattern and a black waistband, and she holds a thin red-and-yellow object in her hand, perhaps a closed fan. She has a black necklace and a black bow in her hair. Both the woman and the child have pale blue-white skin and light brown hair. The child looks out at us, wearing a light-colored dress with a pale pink ribbon around the waist. The sofa they sit on is brown with pink cushions. The background is painted in light strokes of gray, with beige paper visible around the edges. Colorful brush marks are visible around the painting's border, as if the artist was testing the different colors.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    watercolor over graphite on laid paper (recto); graphite on laid paper (verso)

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 24.9 × 25.8 cm (9 13/16 × 10 3/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1970.17.160.a-b

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Bataille/Wildenstein 1961, no. 621

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Marie Edma Caroline Morisot (1839-1921) [married to Hippolyte Adolphe Samuel Pontillon (1832-1894)]?; Mme. Forget [Blanche, Marie Berthe Joséphine Pontillon (1871-1941), married in 1908 to Pierre Émile Forget (1869-1929)]; Captain Edward H. Molyneux [1891-1974], Paris, by 1952; acquired 1955 by Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969]; bequest 1970 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1929

  • Exposition d'oeuvres de Berthe Morisot, MM. Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1929. no. 131.

1949

  • Berthe Morisot 1841-1895, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 1949, no. 53.

1950

  • Berthe Morisot, The Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1950, no. 55.

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 and Her Daughter.

1961

  • French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century from the Collection of Mrs. Mellon Bruce, The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1961, no. 32.

1966

  • French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 236, repro.

1985

  • Graphics Survey Exhibition, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1985-1986.

Bibliography

1961

  • Bataille, M.L., and Georges Wildenstein. Berthe Morisot, catalogue des peintures, pastels et aquarelles. Paris, 1961: 621.

  • French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century from the Collection of Mrs. Mellon Bruce. Exh. cat. California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1961: 32 (both as "Mme. Pontillon and her Daughter Jeanne").

1982

  • Rey, Jean Dominique. Berthe Morisot. New York, 1982: 18.

1991

  • Wadley, Nicholas. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Drawing. London, 1991: no. 49b.

1998

  • Gersch-Nešic, Beth. “Pregnancy." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:754.

Inscriptions

none

Markings

none

Watermarks

A. ANNONAY

Wikidata ID

Q64537423

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