Woman at Her Toilette

Notes from the museum

In Woman at Her Toilette , Berthe Morisot provided a glimpse into the private life of a Parisienne—one of the fashionable, urban women who epitomized modernity in late nineteenth-century France. The figure is shown at her vanity table after a ball, still wearing her earrings and a velvet ribbon around her neck as she reaches up to take down her chignon hairstyle. In the background, Morisot’s soft, feathery brushstrokes suggest a fl oral-patterned bedspread and wallpaper. The artist applied the same gauzy technique to the mirror, obscuring the fi gure’s reflection and thus disrupting the trope of women gazing into mirrors as a symbol of vanity. Morisot signed her name along the bottom of the mirror, an enigmatic detail that may suggest that the figure is a stand-in for the artist herself. Consistent with the Impressionist aesthetic that Morisot fervently espoused, In Woman at Her Toilette attempts to capture the essence of modern life in summary, understated terms. Morisot exhibited in seven of the eight Impressionist group shows; in 1880 this painting was included in the fifth exhibition, where her work received high acclaim. In addition to domestic interiors such as this one, Morisot’s pictorial realm included studies of women and children, gardens, fields, and vacation homes by the sea.

Text: Art Institute of Chicago (open access). Our full story for this work is coming soon.

Slow Look

1. The whole picture Let your eyes wander. Where do they want to rest?
2. The light Find the brightest spot. What is it showing you?
3. The edges Look at what is half cut off at the borders.
4. One small detail Choose one tiny thing and stay with it for a while.
5. The whole picture again Step back. Has it changed for you?

About Berthe Morisot

Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot was a French painter, printmaker and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists.

Painter profile →