Women and Impressionism (DO3C331LE): Assignment 1 16 May, 2004

Manet and Degas both depicted well-known women Impressionists. What kinds of images did they produce and what do these suggest about women’s place in the Impressionist group and their broader social and artistic roles?

When the biographical details of Manet, Degas, and the women Impressionists whom they painted are considered, the way in which they chose to depict the women whom they clearly respected is surprising.

As members of a group of artists whose work and personality clearly influenced each other it is interesting to note that Manet’s initial contact with Berthe Morisot and Eva Gonzalès was with them as models. Manet became a close friend of the Morisot after she posed for his picture The Balcony in 1868, and she later married his brother in 1874 (Denvir, 1987:42). After The Balcony Manet went on to paint several works over the next few years with Morisot as the subject. He met Eva Gonzalès a year later in

1869 when she became “first his model and then his student” (Garb, 2004:1).

Unlike Manet, Degas had acknowledged the American born Mary Cassatt as an artist before she modelled for him; she exhibited with the Impressionists at their fourth annual exhibition after her works had been rejected by the Salons in 1875 and 1877 (Mathews, 2004:1). They remained close friends and she often modelled for him, although in several of the works she remains anonymous (Pool, 1967:146ff).

The Balcony, for which Morisot modelled, is both the earliest and most well known of the depictions of any of the women Impressionists and it is an interesting picture in that the overall construction is not dissimilar to many of Morisot’s own works. As in so many of her pictures the women are placed behind a physical barrier, in this case the rail, confining them to their private sphere while other figures, in this instance Manet as the painter and the viewer, are in the public space. Morisot is the seated figure and her gaze is away from the artist into the distance unlike the other woman who looks straight ahead. Had it not been for this distracted stare the picture’s subject would be unremarkable: the figures are all well dressed and exhibiting the trimmings of refinement. When the picture was first shown in 1869, the phrase “femme fatale” (Denvir 1987:43), suggesting a dangerously attractive woman, was used in relation to the painting

page 1 of 16 Women and Impressionism (DO3C331LE): Assignment 1 16 May, 2004 which, as is so frequently the case, highlights the emphasis on the work being for a male viewer and disregarding the subjects’ identity.

Morisot’s distant expression can also be seen in Manet’s Repose (1869-70) as she stares past the artist, possibly towards, as it could feel to the spectator, the door from the room. The setting for this picture is indoors and she is seated on a luxuriously coloured and padded couch, firmly situated in her domestic world. Her position emphasises the private nature of the picture as it would be considered too slovenly for a woman in public; indeed a contemporary reviewer described it as a “dishevelled manner” and questioned why Manet chose to portray her in that way (Gaulois 1873).

In both The Balcony and Repose Morisot is shown holding a fan, and this motif is clearly elaborated on in

Berthe Morisot with a Fan (1872) where her face is covered with a, now open, fan. This is a far darker picture: with the exception of her shoes she is dressed in black, and the viewer is unable to see her face.

The situation is far sparser with its plain background and upright chair, and there are no indications of the opulence seen in the earlier paintings.

These three paintings are impersonal and with the subject’s distant look and hidden face they could be perceived as making the viewer feel awkward and out of place, as the women Impressionists, female professional artists, themselves were seen by contemporary Parisian society as being. In a dramatic contrast to these, Manet’s other paintings of Morisot portray what appears to be a woman of different character.

In Berthe Morisot au bouquet de violettes (1872) although she is clothed in black the neutral background detracts from it and makes the effect of wearing the mourning dress questionable. She is dressed to go out, away from the private domain of the home and into the public spaces usually unavailable to unaccompanied women. Although she is looking directly at the painter, she still has a distant look in her

page 2 of 16 Women and Impressionism (DO3C331LE): Assignment 1 16 May, 2004 eyes, but they seem to be focussed within the painter or viewer rather than on escaping the domesticity of the other settings.

The two portraits of 1873 seem to be intimate encounters with Morisot rather than posed pictures. The way in which she is adjusting her dress in the watercolour makes this image more photographic and captures an instant giving a view that Schapiro describes as giving “the momentary position of the casual or mobile spectator” (1937:1). The Portrait de Berthe Morisot étendue shows a direct, almost erotic engagement between the subject and artist and, regardless of the austere setting and dark clothes,

Morisot’s outlook seems to be more confident with an expression seemingly challenging the contemporary subdominant position of women in society.

Manet’s Portrait of Eva Gonzalès (1870) is a very different picture as it portrays an artist working rather than showing her in a general domestic environment. However, the ridiculousness of the scene is almost immediately apparent as her dress and general demeanour are inappropriate to the task in hand, her physical position would make it impossible to paint, and the fact that the painting on which she is apparently working is already framed seems to make a mockery of the situation. The subject of her painting is telling in that it is a still life, and enforces the fact that women could only paint as a hobby or pastime. As with the earlier pictures of Morisot she is not involved with either her work or the artist, rather she is looking distantly out the picture. The entire scene is posed for the male viewer, it is the woman who is clearly lit, not the picture on which she is working, and she is dressed like an angelic figure who could be viewed conforming to the female stereotype as an ‘angel of the studio’. Garb describes the painting as “invok[ing] the nineteenth century stereotype of the ‘lady amateur’ and bel[ying] the seriousness of Gonzalès’s attitude to art” (2004:1).

The Portrait of Mary Cassatt by Degas shows the subject dressed in outdoor clothes, but her demeanour is wistful and her expression is one of distraction which does not convey the implicit challenge to woman’s place in society as Monet’s similar portrait of Berthe Morisot au bouquet de violettes does. The

page 3 of 16 Women and Impressionism (DO3C331LE): Assignment 1 16 May, 2004 paintings of Cassatt and Cassatt with her sister in the Louvre are very similar although they are separated by five years. Both show female figures engaged in the ladylike pursuit of visiting the Louvre and the paintings’ constructions are similar as in both the standing subject has their back to the artist, and the seated figure has her face hidden by a book and her headgear. This lack of identity is telling in that, without the title, the models could be anyone and their direct link with art, or more specifically the

Impressionists, is irrelevant. Indeed Degas told a friend that he wanted the 1880 painting “to show ‘a women’s crushed respect and absence of all feeling in the presence of art’” (Poole, 1967:148) and the impression of being crushed from above can be seen in the differing angles of the standing woman’s body. If this was the purpose of the painting it emphasises the lack of importance of the model’s identity beyond that fact they are female, but more interestingly it creates an uncomfortable dichotomy between

Degas’s noted friendship with Cassatt and his apparent opinion of her understanding of and attitude towards art. A further tension can be seen in the fact that Degas was a keen supporter of Morisot and felt that she was too important an artist for the Impressionists to be without.

Although the Louvre was a public space the later painting with her sister includes a door frame or pillar which gives the work a voyeuristic feel as if the artist, and therefore viewer, is intruding into the private world of the Cassatts and their trip to the gallery. This sense of the private world echoes the domestic situation in which women were conventionally trapped extending to all of their activities.

With the exception of the Portrait of Eva Gonzalès none of the paintings of the female Impressionists give any indication that the subjects were artists; considering Gonzalès’s impractical attire and ludicrous positioning for painting the model for the painting could easily have been anyone. In a similar way the model for Manet’s Berthe Morisot with a Fan need not have been her as the figure is only identified by the painting’s title which suggests the possible importance of the subject despite the depiction of anonymity. Cassatt’s anonymous appearances, such as Degas’s milliner, have already been alluded to and this lack of identity conforms to the contemporary view of the relative unimportance of women within society.

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By creating art works which implicitly conform to stereotypical views of society Manet and Degas could perhaps be seen to be endorsing the conservatism of the epoch, rather than trying to create something wholly original and challenging as the Impressionist movement was perceived to be doing. It is interesting to note that Degas rejected the epithet “Impressionist”, preferring to see himself as a “‘Realist’ or ‘Naturalist’ painter … [and] a keen observer of everyday life” (Monnier 2004:3) a label which suggests that in his art his “tendency to regard things as they really are” (OED 1989: realism 2) provides an accurate representation of the way in which women were treated in nineteenth century Paris.

(1613 words)

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Bibliography and References

Denvir, B (ed) (1987) The Impressionists at First Hand London: Thames and Hudson Ltd

Farwell, B (2004) ‘Manet, Edouard’ in The Grove Dictionary of Art Online (http://www.groveart.com)

Garb, T (2004) ‘Gonzalès, Eva’ in The Grove Dictionary of Art Online (http://www.groveart.com)

Garb, T (2004a) ‘Morisot, Berthe’ in The Grove Dictionary of Art Online (http://www.groveart.com) reviewer in the Gaulois (1873) quoted in Shennan, M (1996) The First Lady of Impressionism Stroud: Sutton Publishing

House, J ‘Realism and Impressionism’ in Hooker, D (ed) (1994) History of Western Art London: Boxtree Ltd

Mathews, NM (2004a) ‘Cassatt, Mary’ in The Grove Dictionary of Art Online (http://www.groveart.com)

Monnier, G (2004) ‘Degas, Edgar’ in The Grove Dictionary of Art Online (http://www.groveart.com)

Oxford English Dictionary (1989) ‘realism’ (http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00198438?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=realism&edition=2e)

Parker, R and Pollock, G (1981) Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology London: Routledge & Kegan Paul

Pollock, G (1998) Mary Cassatt: Painter of Modern Women London: Thames & Hudson

Pool, P (1967) Impressionism London: Thames and Hudson Ltd

Schapiro, M (1937) ‘The Nature of Abstract Art’ in Marxist Quarterly 1 quoted on http://www.udel.edu/ArtHistory/werth/courses/154/slide16.htm (University of Delaware)

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Manet: The Balcony (1868)

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Manet: Repose (Berthe Morisot) (1869-1870)

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Manet: Berthe Morisot with a Fan (1872)

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Manet: Berthe Morisot au bouquet de violettes (1872)

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Manet: Portrait of Berthe Morisot (1873)

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Manet: Portrait de Berthe Morisot étendue (1873)

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Manet: Portrait of Eva Gonzalez (1870)

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Degas: Portrait of Mary Cassatt (ca. 1880-1884)

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Degas: Mary Cassatt at the Louvre (1880)

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Degas: Mary Cassatt and her sister at the Louvre (1885)

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