The Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza is presenting a retrospective of the work of the Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot (1841-1895). She was the first female painter to join the Impressionists, who constituted the most avant-garde art group of the day. Morisot participated in the now legendary First Impressionist Exhibition of 1874 and in other subsequent ones held by the group. Berthe Morisot is exceptional within the history of nineteenth century art history in her position as a woman from upper middle-class French society who forged an important career as an artist and who was associated with an innovative, ground-breaking movement that provoked scandal and aversion at the time. Morisot was particularly interested in effects of luminosity and colour and shared her fellow Impressionists’ concern for reflections of light. Her independent, some what rebellious nature is evident in her work, which also provides the basis in this exhibition for an examination of the role of women in late 19th-century France.
