In the Garden at Maurecourt

Painted in oil paints with the freedom and spontaneity of a watercolor sketch, In the Garden at Maurecourt vibrates with movement despite the stillness of its seated figures. The loose, rapid brushstrokes and color harmonies seem to merge figures and landscape. As one critic wrote in 1880, “Berthe Morisot handles the palette and brush with a truly astonishing delicacy. Since the 18th century, since Fragonard [Morisot’s grandfather; see his painting in Gallery 26], no one at all has used clearer tones with such intelligent assurance.” The painting likely shows Morisot’s little daughter, Julie, and one of the daughters of Morisot’s sister Edma. The setting is Edma’s garden at her country home outside Paris. Born to an upper-middle class family, Morisot rejected the social expectations of her class and gender by pursuing a professional career as an artist. In 1868 she met and became close friends with artist Édouard Manet (see his painting Antonin Proust). She married his younger brother Eugène in 1874, the same year she participated in the first Impressionist group exhibition.