Woman in a Garden

1882–83

Berthe Morisot (French, 1841–1895)

This work was probably begun in the summer of 1882, when Berthe Morisot and her family rented a house in Bougival, a picturesque village along the Seine River in northern France. Morisot spent the season there with her husband, Eugène Manet (artist Édouard Manet’s brother), and their nearly four-year-old daughter, Julie. The child wearing a straw hat in the background of this painting is likely based on Julie, while the identity of the main figure is unknown.

Morisot applied paint as if she were making a landscape in the Impressionist style, slashing acid green pigments and bluish ochers across the canvas to transcribe the effects of dappled sunlight without differentiating between the strokes used for the figure and setting.

Status: On View, Gallery 201
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Berthe Morisot
Title: Woman in a Garden
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.: 1882–1883
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 123 × 94 cm (48 1/2 × 37 in.); Framed: 153.7 × 123.9 × 12.1 cm (60 1/2 × 48 3/4 × 4 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: A Millennium Gift of Sara Lee Corporation
Reference Number: 1999.363
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/153798/manifest.json

Possibly Review in Artist (May 1, 1883) cited in Kate Flint, Impressionists in England (London, 1984), p. 61.
Kunst und Künstler 9 (1911), p. 206, as Im Garten.
M. Dormoy, “La Collection Ernest Rouart, Formes 24 (April 1932), afb. pp. 256-257.
Monique Angoulvent, Berthe Morisot (Paris, 1933), pp. 70-71, cat. 155 as Le Jardin rue de Villejust, 1883.
Louis Rouart, Berthe Morisot (Paris, 1941), p. 31.
M.L. Bataille and G. Wildenstein, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Pastels, and Watercolours of Berthe Morisot (Paris, 1961), pp. 17, 32, cat. 142 as Le Jardin, 1883, pl. 54.
Consolidated Foods Corporation’s Nathan Cummings Collection (Chicago, 1983), p. 12, fig. 7 (ill.)
Kate Flint, Impressionists in England: The Critical Reception (London, 1984), p. 61.
Anne Higonnet, Berthe Morisot (New York, 1990).
Collector’s Agenda (Netherlands, 1994) as Young Woman in a Garden, 1883.
Alain Clairet, Delphine Montalant, and Yves Rouart, Berthe Morisot (Paris, 1997), p. 184, no. 143.
Gloria Groom, “Young Woman in a Garden,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 30, 1 (2004), pp. 68-69 (color ills.).
The Age of Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven and London, 2008), cat. 20, p. 60 (ill.).
Marianne Mathieu, Berthe Morisot: 1841-1895, exh. cat. (Yale UP, 2012), p, 140, cat. 44.
Dorthe Vangsgaard Nielsen, ed., Impressionism and Its Overlooked Women, exh. cat. (Charlottenlund: Ordrupgaard, 2024), 150 (detail ill.), 151 cat. 31.

Possibly London, Dowdeswell Galleries, Impressionist exhibition organized by Durand-Ruel: Paintings, Drawings, and Pastels by Members of the “Société des Impressionistes, April 1883, cat. 1.
Paris, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Berthe Morisot (Madame Eugène Manet): Exposition de son oeuvre, March 5-21, 1896, cat. 1, as Le Jardin, 1883.
Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, 1902 [acc. to Washington 1987 and Clairet 1997]
Paris, Salon d’Automne, 1907, cat. 1 ILL, 7.11.07
Paris, Manzi, Joyant and Cie., 1912, no. 41 [acc. to Washington 1987 and Clairet 1997]
Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Cent oeuvres de Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), November 7-11, 1919, cat. 21.
Paris, Marcel Bernheim Gallery, Réunion d’oeuvres de Berthe Morisot, June-July 1922, cat. 1.
Paris, L. Dru Gallery, Exposition de Pastels, Aquarelles, Dessins, Crayons de Berthe Morisot, May 21-June 25, 1926, cat. 57, as Jardin, 1883.
Paris, Bernheim-Jeune Gallery, Exposition d’oeuvres de Berthe Morisot, May 6-24, 1929, cat. 1, as Le Jardin, prêté par M. et Mme Rouart.
Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, Exposition: Berthe Morisot, 1941, cat. 43, as Le Jardin, 1883.
Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, August-September 1949, cat. 24, as Le Jardin, 1883.
London, The Arts Council, Berthe Morisot: An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings, 1950, cat. 27, as In the Garden, 1883.
Toronto, Art Gallery of Toronto, Berthe Morisot and Her Circle: Paintings from the Rouart Collection, 1952-1954, cat. 5, as The Garden, 1883; traveled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art; Washington, D.C., The Phillips Collection; San Fransisco, California Palace of The Legion of Honor; Portland, Portland Museum of Art.
Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, La Collection Nathan Cummings, March-May 1965, as Jeune Fille dans un Jardin. [acc. to label on reverse of painting]
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Selections from the Nathan Cummings Collection, June 28-September 11, 1970, cat. 15, as In the Garden, 1883, also shown in New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 1-September 7, 1971.
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Berthe Morisot: Impressionist, September 6-November 29, 1987, no cat. no. as The Garden; traveled to Fort-Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, December 12, 1987-February 21, 1988; South Hadley, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, March 14-May 9, 1988.
Singapore, Singapore Museum of Art, Monet to Moore, April 1-May 30, 1999, traveled to Canberra, National Gallery of Australia, June 11-August 22, 1999; Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, September 10-November 7, 1999; Oregon, Portland Art Museum, November 19-January 23, 2000; The Art Institute of Chicago, march 13-May 28, 2000, cat. 35, as The Garden (LeJardin), 1882-83.
Fort Worth, Tex., Kimbell Museum of Art, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, June 29–November 2, 2008, cat. 20 (ill.).
Paris, France, Marmottan-Monet Museum, Berthe Morisot: 1841-1895, March 7- July 1, 2012. cat. 44.
Charlottenlund, Denmark, Ordrupgaard, Impressionism and Its Overlooked Women, Feb. 10–May 20, 2024, cat. 31; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, Woman Impressionists, June 27–Oct. 6, 2024 [Charlottenlund only].

With the artist until her death in 1895; by descent to the artist’s daughter Julie and her husband Ernest Rouart; by descent to their son, Denis Rouart; sold to Nathan Cummings, 1955, Palm Beach, Florida [this and the following information provided by Consolidated Foods Corporation, Sara Lee Corporation; see also Chicago 2000]; given to Mrs. Robert B. Mayer, Chicago in the 1970s; sold to Consolidated Foods Corporation, Nathan Cummings Collection, 1983; given to the Art Institute, 1999.

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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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