Under the Orange Tree, 1889. Berthe Morisot. Oil on canvas. Gift of Henry W. and Marion H. Bloch.
Berthe Morisot was a leading and dedicated member of the Impressionists, whose professional artist association was the first to admit women and men equally. As a wealthy middle-class woman, she was not able to access the spaces of urban modernity, such as concert cafés and dance halls, that men often depicted. Her paintings thus reflect the feminine, often domestic sphere to which she was confined.
Here, her daughter Julie sits in the garden of Morisot’s winter home in the south of France, near brightly rendered orange trees and a parrot in a birdcage.
