Berthe Morisot: capturing something of what goes by

Berthe Morisot 1841–1895 not men. However, as women, they An exhibition at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France, showing until could serve the cause of painting by June 9, 2002, and then at the Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, each marrying a member of the French Switzerland, from June 20 to Nov 19, 2002. Academy and sowing discord in the camp of those dotards.” year after her death in 1895, a surprising given her importance in the In many ways, Morisot was the most posthumous exhibition of Berthe Impressionist movement. Indeed, she avant-garde of all Impressionists. She AMorisot’s work was held at the was the only woman artist who exhibited was the first to paint many of the new Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris, France. at the group’s first exhibition in 1874, school’s favourite spots, such as the The hanging committee must certainly and she took part in all but one of their river between Pontoise and Auvers. have been among the most illustrious subsequent shows. “Nobody represents Her style was avant-garde and extremely in the history of art; it consisted of Impressionism with a more refined daring. She cherished the idea of her fellow painters Claude Monet, talent and with more authority than spontaneity with the result that her Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and brush strokes were bold, wild, Edgar Degas, as well as the and disordered. She scraped poet Stéphane Mallarmé. The her canvases with dry brushes latter wrote the preface for the and scratched them with the catalogue. Renoir suggested handles. Indeed, she often that a day bed was placed in deliberately left her paintings the middle of the exhibition incomplete. At the 1876 space. All four were regular exhibition, a critic compared visitors to Morisot’s house, her views of a port on the and the list of her other Isle of Wight to the inept friends and acquaintances is scribblings of a schoolchild. extraordinary—they included Another surmised that she fellow painters Gustave had simply rubbed her palette Caillebotte, Pierre Puvis de up against the canvas. Chavannes, James McNeill The daughter of a high- Whistler, Charles François ranking civil servant, Morisot Daubigny, and Honoré began painting lessons, Daumier. together with Edma, when Yet, the figure with whom she was 16. It soon became she is most closely associated is clear that the sisters’ talents Edouard Manet. Morisot was would not be confined to the introduced to him in 1868 domestic sphere, as one of by Henri Fantin-Latour and their art teachers, Joseph later became his sister-in- Guichard, warned their law (she married his brother mother: “Your daughters have Eugène in 1874). Over the such inclinations that my years, Manet painted 14 teaching will not give them

portraits of Berthe, 12 of which Musée d'Orsay, Paris/RMN RG Ojeda the small talent of pleasing. are presented in the current Le berceau (1872) They will become painters. Do show at Lille. In all, there are you realise what that means? nearly 70 paintings on display, including Madame Morisot”, wrote Monet’s In your environment of the upper- many works that have not been seen biographer, Gustave Geffroy, in 1881. middle class, this will be a revolution, in France since the 19th century. The Pissarro talked about her “superb I might also say a catastrophe.” Later, presentation is wonderfully clear and talent”, and Mallarmé qualified her the Morisot sisters came into contact concise, the explanations informative, art as “particularly feminine”. with Corot, who shared with them and the lighting superlative. The event Yet, her status as an artist suffered his vision of light and form. At the is also rather rare. The last large retro- because she was a woman. Even her end of her career, Berthe came under spective of Morisot’s oeuvre in France close friends manifested a distinct dose the influence of Renoir. From 1888 dates back more than 40 years. of misogyny. In a letter to Fantin-Latour onwards, her work underwent a This fact is indicative of the relative about Berthe and his sister Edma, radical change. The strokes became lack of regard that Morisot’s work Manet wrote: “The young Morisot girls long and sinuous, and she developed has attracted since her death—rather are charming. It’s annoying that they are a preoccupation with both line and

THE LANCET • Vol 359 • May 18, 2002 • www.thelancet.com 1783

For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group. DISSECTING ROOM

But despite this doll on the beach and playing the evolving style, Mor- piano, violin, or mandolin. isot’s subject matter Morisot’s first official recognition remained the same. came in 1894 with the acquisition by Throughout her life, the French State of Young Woman in she was fascinated by Ball Dress (1880) for the Luxembourg nature. She painted Museum. The lack of posthumous landscapes in Nor- attention would probably not have mandy, her garden, bothered her: “For a long time now, I and numerous water have not hoped for anything and the themes. She also desire for glorification after death seems produced a series of to me an inordinate ambition”, she portraits of young wrote at the end of her life. “My own ladies at the opera. ambition was limited to wanting to But most of her can- capture something of what goes by, just vases simply show something, the smallest thing . . . An her daily life. Her attitude of Julie’s, a smile, a flower, a

Metropolitan Museum New York husband Eugène fruit, the branch of a tree, any of these Jeune femme cousant au jardin (1883) and niece Jeannie things alone would be enough for me.” Gobillard posed for colour. Morisot even began to do pre- her, but her favourite model, was her Ian Phillips paratory studies for her compositions. daughter Julie. We see Julie with her c/o The Lancet, London, UK Tools of the trade The Finsen Light

he climate and geography of a have been wrongly diagnosed. But of medical innovator’s birthplace those with cutaneous tuberculosis, Tdo not often explain the nature hundreds returned home cured and of their innovation, but in the case of grateful to Finsen, who chose to freely Niels Ryberg Finsen (1860–1904), the share his discoveries rather than link seems inescapable. Finsen was develop a lucrative private practice. born in the Faeroe Islands, the son of On hearing that he was to receive a Icelandic parents. Sickly for much of In 1901, Finsen donated a light to Nobel prize in 1903, Finsen remarked his childhood, he was dismissed from the Princess of Wales, soon to become that that was because “they knew 1904 his Danish preparatory school for Queen Alexandra and herself a Dane. would be too late”. He was right. He “small ability and total lack of energy”. She gave it to the London Hospital. In died, aged only 44 years in 1904. Subsequently educated in Much of his adult life had Reykjavik, and then at the been spent in a wheelchair, University of Copenhagen at the mercy of a mysterious Medical School, Finsen won condition that he had the Nobel Prize for physiol- attempted to control by ogy or medicine in 1903. stringent monitoring of his Brought up in a land with salt and fluid balance. Only unremitting winter months, Rights were not granted to include this at autopsy was this disease he devoted his working life diagnosed as constrictive to studying the therapeutic image in electronic media. Please refer pericarditis. Many today potential of light. In 1896 to the printed journal. would have little hesitation Finsen established the first in applying another diagno- Medical Light Institute, in sis to Finsen—that of sea- Copenhagen. sonal affective disorder. “Let His main innovation was [the sunlight] break through the Finsen Light, designed suddenly on a cloudy day to treat the disfiguring con- and see the change”, he

dition of lupus vulgaris. Wellcome Library, London wrote, “we ourselves feel as Ultraviolet light from a King Edward VIII and Queen Alexandra visit the Finsen Light Room if a burden were lifted”. He carbon arc was concentrated at the London Hospital, A Forestier (1903) later observed, “All that I through four water-cooled have accomplished in my tubes fitted with quartz lenses. At the the era before antituberculous drugs, experiments with light, and all that I distal end of each tube a double walled ultraviolet light was the only effective have learned about its therapeutic value quartz applicator was pressed to the weapon against tubercle bacilli in the has come because I needed the light so skin, dehaematising it and enhancing skin. Patients came to the London much myself, I longed for it so”. the effect of the rays. An hour’s treat- Hospital for light treatment from all ment was needed for an area roughly over the world, sometimes working Ghislaine Lawrence 2·5 cm in diameter, but four patients their passage or using their life savings. Clinical Medicine, The Science Museum, could be treated simultaneously. Tragically, on arrival some proved to London SW7 2DD, UK

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