“Variations on a Theme: Berthe Morisot‟s Reinterpretation of the „Woman at the Piano‟ Motif in Her Images of Girls at the Piano, 1888-1892” A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Art History Committee Members: Dr. Theresa Leininger-Miller (chair) Dr. Morgan Thomas Dr. Julie Aronson May, 2011 Erin E. Ehresmann B.A., St. Cloud State University, May 2008 ABSTRACT In this study, I examine Le Piano (1888) and Lucie Léon au Piano (1892) by Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) and the significant ways in which these two paintings depart from the established tradition of female piano portraiture in nineteenth-century France. Charlotte Eyerman has explored the importance of the “woman at the piano” theme and its role in the construction of femininity but limits her study to the work of male artists. Morisot‟s piano portraits offer an unusual female perspective on a theme primarily created and perpetuated by male artists. My analysis elucidates the manner in which these works drew upon the tradition of the woman at the piano motif and the specific ways in which the artist subverted the passivity and superficiality that characterized male-produced versions of the theme. Le Piano evokes the tradition of female bourgeois education in nineteenth-century France and the importance of the piano in the development of femininity. However, Morisot enriched the commonplace act of playing the piano with an intellectualism not part of the superficial, socially-ordained reasons for playing in a unique manner that was largely absent from its representations in visual tradition. In Le Piano, by painting the confident figure of her daughter, Julie, nonchalantly leaning on the piano and looking out at the viewer as her cousin, Jeannie Gobillard, plays, Morisot communicated the fulfilling and enjoyable role music-making played in these girls‟ lives. In Lucie Léon au Piano, the visual emphasis of the tensed musculature of Léon‟s hands and arms invites associations with the conventions of male piano portraiture. While female pianists were generally prized for their charm and delicacy, male pianists, especially the male virtuoso, were conceived of as powerful, insightful, and active musicians. Morisot departed from the static and amateurish qualities common in the woman at the piano motif to create images whose subjects are physically engaged with the act of making music. In both Le Piano and Lucie Léon au ii Piano, Morisot reversed the conventional subject/beholder relationship. Not only do her pianists look directly out at viewers, thereby denying the right to look without being seen, but the concomitant flattening of pictorial space and insistence of the medium itself confronts the beholder. Drawing upon Michael Fried‟s theory of “facingness,” I posit that Morisot‟s painterly technique and self-aware subjects work in tandem to create entirely new and assertive images of woman at the piano scenes in the late nineteenth-century Impressionist milieu. Through Le Piano and Lucie Léon au Piano, Morisot articulated a fresh pictorial vocabulary of female pianism that emphasized agency and self-awareness over the traditional measures of femininity. iii iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many thanks go to the art history faculty at the University of Cincinnati for sharing their enthusiasm and knowledge of the field with me over the past two years. I want to extend my gratitude especially to my advisor, Dr. Theresa Leininger-Miller, for guiding me through the process of thesis-writing and graduate school as a whole. She has been supportive of my ideas and ambitions since the beginning, and I am grateful to have worked with someone who is also interested in exploring the intersection of visual culture and music. Her insightful comments and unsurpassed editorial skills have helped foster my nascent ideas into a full-fledged thesis. Dr. Julie Aronson and Dr. Morgan Thomas also deserve recognition and thanks for donating their time and expertise as committee members. Their varied points of view and discerning criticism are invaluable resources to me. Thanks also to Dr. Lynne Ambrosini for kindly offering to serve as an alternate reader. Many thanks to my classmates for being such wonderful companions through the ups and downs of graduate school. It would have been much less fun without them. Cindy Damschroder has also been a great bastion of emotional support and practical advice for me, whether I was plodding through a never-ending stack of undergraduate art history essays or agonizing about qualifying exams. I am so grateful for all the opportunities and guidance she has given me in my two years as her teaching assistant. I also want to express my love and gratitude to my family for their unwavering support of all my endeavors, whether I dreamed of being a concert pianist or an art historian. I still love my grand piano, Mom and Dad. Megan, I appreciate you taking time away from your own graduate studies to commiserate with me about school. I will return the favor when you are writing your dissertation. v And finally, to Max I owe a great many thanks. You have been a voice of reason and encouragement when times got tough. I couldn‟t have done it without you. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ………………………………………………………………………...viii INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………………………1 CHAPTER ONE Poise, Grace, and Charm: The Cultivation of Femininity in Nineteenth-Century France and Morisot‟s Le Piano, 1888 ………………………………………………………………………...7 CHAPTER TWO Constructions of Pianism and Morisot‟s Lucie Léon au Piano, 1892 …………………………..24 CHAPTER THREE Morisot‟s Piano Girls in the Age of Impressionism …………………………………………….38 CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………………………..50 IMAGES …………………………………………………………………………………………..54 BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………………………………..78 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1 7 Figure 1: Berthe Morisot, Le Piano, 1888, oil on canvas, 25 /2 x 31 /8 in., private collection, New York, New York 7 3 Figure 2: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Kaunitz Sisters, 1818, graphite, 11 /8 x 8 /4 in., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York Figure 3: Achille Devéria, Prelude, 1832, lithograph, in Journal des Femmes, dimensions unknown, Musée Carnavelet, Paris Figure 4: Victor Coindre, untitled illustration for sheet music “Maria, Romance,” n.d., lithograph, dimensions unknown, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris Figure 5: Advertisement for “Musique en 30 lecons,” 1845, lithograph, dimensions unknown, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 3 1 Figure 6: Berthe Morisot, Two Girls at the Piano, n.d., charcoal, 17 /4 x 20 /2 in., location unknown 1 1 Figure 7: Berthe Morisot, Julie Écoutant, 1888, oil on canvas, 24 /2 x 18 /2 in., private collection, New York, New York 5 Figure 8: Berthe Morisot, Julie Écoutant, 1888, oil on canvas, 21 /8 x 15 in., private collection, Paris 5 7 Figure 9: Berthe Morisot, Le Piano, 1888, pastel on paper, 25 /8 x 31 /8 in., private collection, Paris 1 3 Figure 10: Berthe Morisot, Le Mandoline, 1889, oil on canvas, 22 /2 x 21 /4 in., private collection Figure 11: Marguerite Gerard, La Leçon de Piano, 1780s, oil on canvas, 18 x 15 in., location unknown 1 1 Figure 12: Berthe Morisot, Lucie Léon au Piano, 1892, oil on canvas, 25 /2 x 31 /2 in., private collection, Michigan Figure 13: János Jankó, Franz Liszt at the Piano, in Borsszem Jankó (April 6, 1873), dimensions unknown viii 1 Figure 14: Gustave Caillebotte, Young Man Playing the Piano, 1876, oil on canvas, 31 /2 x 45 7 /10 in., private collection 5 Figure 15: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Young Woman at the Piano, 1876, oil on canvas, 36 /8 x 29 1 /8 in., the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois Figure 16: Félix Vallotton, Le Piano, plate IV from the series Six Musical Instruments, 1896, 5 3 woodcut, 12 /8 x 9 /8 in., Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York 1 5 Figure 17: Berthe Morisot, Lucie Léon au Piano, 1892, oil on canvas, 25 /2 x 21 /8 in., location unknown 1 5 Figure 18: Berthe Morisot, Lucie Léon au Piano, 1892, oil on canvas, 25 /2 x 23 /8 in., private collection, Paris 3 1 Figure 19: James McNeill Whistler, At the Piano, 1858-1859, oil on canvas, 26 /8 x 36 /8 in., Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, Ohio 1 1 Figure 20: Paul Cézanne, Tannhaüser Overture, c. 1869, oil on canvas, 29 /2 x 36 /5 in., Hermitage Museum, Russia 9 4 Figure 21: Gustave Caillebotte, The Piano Lesson, 1881, oil on canvas, 31 /10 x 24 /5 in., Musée Marmottan, Paris 5 3 Figure 22: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Girls at the Piano, 1892, oil on canvas, 45 /8 x 35 /8 in., Musée d‟Orsay, Paris 1 Figure 23: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Piano Lesson, c. 1889, oil on canvas, 22 x 18 /8 in., Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska Figure 24: Louise Abbéma, Au Piano, c. 1880, oil on canvas, dimensions unknown, location unknown ix INTRODUCTION Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), a founding member of the French Impressionists, is primarily known for her representations of women and children engaged in the private, everyday activities of Parisian bourgeois life. The focus of my study involves a very small subset of her work, images of girls at the piano, which never has been the sole subject of a concentrated analysis. The piano had a widespread presence in nineteenth-century consciousness and became a prevalent theme in literature and visual culture. Popular images, as well as high art, clearly defined the instrument‟s emblematic associations with femininity, a construction disseminated by the male majority of professional image makers. I have analyzed and discussed Morisot‟s piano paintings in terms of this broader nineteenth-century “woman at the piano” motif, drawing comparisons from a large body of piano portraits that highlight Morisot‟s unusual treatment of the theme from a female artistic viewpoint.