Woman at Her Toilette

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

1875–80

Berthe Morisot (French, 1841–1895)

In Woman at Her Toilette, Berthe Morisot provided a glimpse into the private life of a Parisienne—one of the fashionable, urban women who epitomized modernity in late nineteenth-century France. The ﬁgure is shown at her vanity table after a ball, still wearing her earrings and a velvet ribbon around her neck as she reaches up to take down her chignon hairstyle. In the background, Morisot’s soft, feathery brushstrokes suggest a ﬂ oral-patterned bedspread and wallpaper. The artist applied the same gauzy technique to the mirror, obscuring the ﬁ gure’s reﬂection and thus disrupting the trope of women gazing into mirrors as a symbol of vanity. Morisot signed her name along the bottom of the mirror, an enigmatic detail that may suggest that the ﬁgure is a stand-in for the artist herself.

Consistent with the Impressionist aesthetic that Morisot fervently espoused, In Woman at Her Toilette attempts to capture the essence of modern life in summary, understated terms. Morisot exhibited in seven of the eight Impressionist group shows; in 1880 this painting was included in the ﬁfth exhibition, where her work received high acclaim. In addition to domestic interiors such as this one, Morisot’s pictorial realm included studies of women and children, gardens, ﬁelds, and vacation homes by the sea.

Status: On loan to Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor in San Francisco for Morisot/Manet
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Berthe Morisot
Title: Woman at Her Toilette
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1870–1880
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed lower left: Berthe Morisot
Dimensions: 60.3 × 80.4 cm (23 3/4 × 31 5/8 in.); Framed: 85.8 × 105.5 × 10.5 cm (33 3/4 × 41 1/2 × 4 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Stickney Fund
Reference Number: 1924.127
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/11723/manifest.json

W. Dewhurst, “Impressionist Painting: Its Genesis and Development,” International Studio 19 (May, 1903), pp. 165, 168 (ill.).
Roger Marx, “Les Femmes Peintres et l’impressionisme, Berthe Morisot,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, per. 3, vol. 38 (December 1907), pp. 497 (ill.), 498.
The Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report 1924 (Chicago, 1924), ill.
R.M.F., “ A Painting by Berthe Morisot,” The Art Institute of Chicago Bulletin 18 (1924), pp. 50, 51, (ill.)
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection, (Chicago, 1925), p. 65 (ill.).
Monique Angoulvent, Berthe Morisot (Paris, 1931), pp. 55, 121, no. 83.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook (Chicago, 1932), pp. 62, ill. 164.
D.C. Rich, “Französische Impressionisten im Art Institute zu Chicago,” Pantheon 11 (March 1933), pp. 77 (ill.),78.
Lionello Venturi, Les Archives de l’impressionisme vol. 2 (Paris, 1939), p. 257.
Hans Huth, “Impressionism Comes to America,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, sér. 6, vol. 29 (April, 1946), pp. 225-252, fig. 17.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1956), p. 34.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute, A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), pp. 340, ill. p. 288.
M.-L. Bataille and Georges Wildenstein, Berthe Morisot: Catalogue des peintures, pastels, aquarelles (Paris, 1961), no. 84, pl. 37.
Jean Dominique Rey, Berthe Morisot (New York, 1982), pp. 29, 35 (ill.), 37, 51.
Richard R. Brettell, French Impressionists (Chicago, 1987), pp. 24 (det. ill.), 25, 27 (ill.), 118.
Anne Higonnet, Berthe Moristot’s Images of Women (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 106, 155, pl. 7.
Alain Clairet et al., Berthe Morisot 1841-1895: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint (Montolivet, 1997), no. 85 (ill.).
Wendy Slatkin, Women Artists in History: From Antiquity to the Present (Upper Saddle River, 1997), pp. 137-139 (ill.).
Richard R. Brettell et al., Impression: Painting Quickly in France, 1860-1890, exh. cat. (London, The National Gallery and Williamston, Mass., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2001), p. 91 (ill.).
Richard R. Brettell and Anne-Brigitte Fonsmark, Gauguin and Impressionism, exh. cat. (Copenhagen, Ordrugpgaard, 2005/Forth Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, 2005-6), p. 85, fig. 62.
The Age of Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven and London, 2008), cat. 19, pp. 58–59 (ill.).
Sylvie Patry, ed., Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Market (London: National Gallery Company, 2015), 134-35 (detail ill.), 145 fig. 95, 260 cat. 60.
Kang, Cindy, et. al., Berthe Morisot: Woman Impressionist, exh. cat. (Rizzoli Electa, 2018), 76, 78, 91, 93, 110, cat. 30.
Jason Farago, “Images for a Hazy New Age: Mapping a Transformation in the Depiction of Women,” New York Times, Nov. 23, 2018, c20 ill.
Sylvie Patry in Berthe Morisot, exh. cat. (Paris: Flammarion, 2019), 81, 86-87 cat. 37.
Nicole R. Myers, “Morisot et la ffemme moderne,” in Berth Morisot, exh. cat. (Paris: Flammarion, 2019), 180.
Marianne Mathieu, ed., Berthe Morisot: Shaping Impressionism, exh. cat. (London: Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2023), 1 (detail), 20, 33, 56, 65, 102-03 cat. 7.
James Rondeau, ed., Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the collection (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2025), 75 (ill.).

Possibly Paris, 2éme Exposition de Peinture (1), Apr. 1876. [see D. Rouart, Correspondence de Berthe Morisot (Paris, 1950), pp. 98, 257]
Paris, 5me Expostition de Peinture, 1880, cat. 115.
Paris, Durand-Ruel, Berthe Morisot, Exposition de son oeuvre, Mar. 1896, cat. 68.
London, Durand-Ruel at the Grafton Galleries, A Selection From the Pictures by Boudin, Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, cat. 162 (ill.).
Pittsburgh, Penn., Carnegie Institute, Exhibition of Paintings Édouard Manet, Pierre Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Oct.-Dec. 1924, cat. 29 (ill.).
The Arts Club of Chicago, Exhibitions of Paintings of Three Woman Painters, Nov. 1931, not listed in cat.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1-Nov. 1, 1933, cat. 334 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1-Nov. 1, 1934, cat. 257.
The Toledo Museum of Art, French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, Nov. 1934, cat. 11.
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, French Painting from David to Toulouse-Lautrec, Feb.-Mar. 1941, cat. 95 (ill.).
The Arts Club of Chicago, Berthe Morisot, Mar.-Apr. 1943, cat. 1.
New York, Wildenstien and Co., Berthe Morisot, Nov.-Dec. 10, 1960, cat. 12 (ill.).
New York, Wildenstein and Co., Paris–New York: A Continuing Romance, Nov. 3-Dec. 19, 1977, cat. 76 (ill.).
Southampton, New York, The Parrish Art Museum, William Merritt Chase in the Company of Friends, May 12- July 29, 1979, cat. 79 (ill.).
St. Petersburg, Florida, Museum of Fine Arts, Paris in the Belle Epoque: People and Places, Mar. 1-Apr. 6, 1980, cat. 56 (ill.).
Albi, Musée Toulouse- Lautrec, Trésors impressionnistes du Musée de Chicago, June 27-Aug. 31, 1980, cat. 23 (ill.).
Tokyo, The Seibu Museum of Art, The Impressionist Tradition: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 18-Dec. 17, 1985, cat. 21 (ill.); Fukuoka Art Museum, Jan. 5-Feb. 2, 1986 and Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Mar. 4-Apr. 13, 1986.
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, Jan. 17- Apr. 6, 1986, cat. 96 (ill.); Fine Art Museum of San Francisco, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Apr. 19- July 6, 1986.
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Berthe Morisot: Impressionist, Sep. 6-Nov. 29, 1987, cat. 35; Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, Dec. 12, 1987-Feb. 21, 1988; Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Mar. 14-May 9, 1988, shown in Washington and Forth Worth only.
Leningrad [St. Petersburg], Hermitage Museum, Ot Delakrua do Matissa: shedevry frantsuzskoĭ zhivopici XIX-nachala XX veka, iz Muieia Metropoliten v Niu-Ĭorke i Khudozhestvennogo Instituta v Chikago [From Delacroix to Matisse: Great Paintings From the XIX century to the Beginning of the XXth century From Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago], Mar. 15-May 19, 1988, cat. 18; Moscow, Pushkin Museum, June 10-July 30, 1988.
Lille, Palais de Beaux-Arts de Lille, Berthe Morisot 1841-1895, Mar. 10-June 9, 2002, cat .49 (ill.); Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, June 20-Nov. 19, 2002.
Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Woman in Impressionism: From Mythical Feminine to Modern Woman, Oct. 6, 2006-Jan. 21, 2007, cat. 71 (ill.).
Fort Worth, Tex., Kimbell Museum of Art, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, June 29–Nov. 2, 2008, cat. 19 (ill.).
Paris, Musée Luxembourg, Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Market, Oct. 9, 2014-Feb. 8, 2015, cat. 60; London, National Gallery, Mar. 4-May 31, 2015; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Inventing Impressionism, June 18-Sep. 13, 2015.
Williamstown, MA, Clark Art Institute, Women Artists in Paris, June 8 - Sep. 3, 2018
Philadelphia, Barnes Foundation, Berthe Morisot, Woman Impressionist, Oct. 20, 2018 - Jan. 14, 2019, cat. 30; Dallas Museum of Art, Feb. 24 - May 26, 2019; Paris, Musée d’Orsay, June 17 - Sep. 22, 2019, cat. 30.
Paris, Musée d’Orsay, Berthe Morisot, June 18-Sep. 22, 2019, cat. 37.
London, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Berthe Morisot: Shaping Impressionism, Apr. 5 - Sep. 10, 2023, cat. 7; Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet, Oct. 18, 2023 - Mar. 10, 2024.

William Merritt Chase, New York; his sale, New York, American Art Galleries, 1896, lot 1093 [according to Clairet 1997]. Mary Cassatt, 1896 [see Paris 1896]. Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1905 [see London 1905]. Wildenstein & Co., New York [according to Chicago 1933]. Paul Rosenberg, New York by 1924; sold to the Art Institute, 1924.

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On loan to Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor in San Francisco for Morisot/Manet

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On loan to Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor in San Francisco for Morisot/Manet

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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