Lot Essay
From the mid 1870s Berthe Morisot became increasingly involved in the exploration of light and colour in her painting. Like Monet, Sisley and later Bracquemond, she was particularly interested in the effect of light on white and set up compositions to explore the pictorial problem. The subject of these paintings were often of women presented in the traditional pictorial genre: gathering flowers in the garden, dressing in front of mirrors, or carrying out domestic tasks in intimate interior settings. Morisot's use of traditional compositions to explore the effect of light can be most admired in the celebrated painting Dans la salle à manger, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (fig. 1).
Morisot's command of just such silver and gold harmonies is no less remarkable in the present painting. It is her decision to depict the figure of a maid from behind that may seem unconventional, for it strictly limits the role of expression or gesture. Instead, the subject in La salle à manger de la famille Rouart avenue d'Eylau is the shimmering play of light in a dining-room, transforming a clutter of mundane objects, including tableware, porcelain, bread, a rustic cupboard and a maid's uniform, into a faceted, jewel-like realm of color" (Exh. cat., Washington D.C., p. 88).
The artist's depiction of the figure from behind also enhances the sense of intimacy; it invites the viewer to enter the composition without interrupting the maid's activity, while maintaining the dining-room's peaceful and private atmosphere undisturbed. This modernist use of intimate perspectives was shared by Morisot's colleague and dear friend, Edouard Manet, in his celebrated Devant le miroir, 1876, now in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (fig. 2).
Like Manet, Morisot's paintings were often described by critics as unfinished and her free brushwork as spotty and incoherent. Both artists were more concerned with adopting a modernist style, pursuing Degas' advocate, Duranty, the art critic who in 1876 had dared artists to describe the essence of modern life with no more than a figure's back to go by. La salle à manger de la famille Rouart avenue d'Eylau is precisely a celebration of Duranty's modernist spirit, where brushstrokes and colour tones prevail over subject-matter.
Morisot's command of just such silver and gold harmonies is no less remarkable in the present painting. It is her decision to depict the figure of a maid from behind that may seem unconventional, for it strictly limits the role of expression or gesture. Instead, the subject in La salle à manger de la famille Rouart avenue d'Eylau is the shimmering play of light in a dining-room, transforming a clutter of mundane objects, including tableware, porcelain, bread, a rustic cupboard and a maid's uniform, into a faceted, jewel-like realm of color" (Exh. cat., Washington D.C., p. 88).
The artist's depiction of the figure from behind also enhances the sense of intimacy; it invites the viewer to enter the composition without interrupting the maid's activity, while maintaining the dining-room's peaceful and private atmosphere undisturbed. This modernist use of intimate perspectives was shared by Morisot's colleague and dear friend, Edouard Manet, in his celebrated Devant le miroir, 1876, now in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (fig. 2).
Like Manet, Morisot's paintings were often described by critics as unfinished and her free brushwork as spotty and incoherent. Both artists were more concerned with adopting a modernist style, pursuing Degas' advocate, Duranty, the art critic who in 1876 had dared artists to describe the essence of modern life with no more than a figure's back to go by. La salle à manger de la famille Rouart avenue d'Eylau is precisely a celebration of Duranty's modernist spirit, where brushstrokes and colour tones prevail over subject-matter.