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Property formerly in the Collection of Janice Levin, Sold to Benefit The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation*

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895)

Jeune fille écrivant

Details

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895)
Jeune fille écrivant
stamped with signature 'Berthe Morisot' (Lugt 1826; lower right)
oil on canvas
24 x 19 5/8 in. (61 x 50 cm.)
Painted in 1891

Provenance

Ernest and Julie Rouart (née Manet), Paris (by 1895).
Toledo Museum of Art (acquired from the above, 1955).
Sam Salz, Inc., New York (acquired from the above, 1957).
M. Rosensaft, Montreux (1958).
Mr. and Mrs. Josef Rosensaft, New York (1960).
Mr. and Mrs. Philip Levin, New York (acquired circa 1968-1971).
Gift from the above to the present owner, 2001.

Literature

M. Angoulvent, Berthe Morisot, Paris, 1933, p. 144, no. 514.
D. Rouart, Berthe Morisot, Paris, 1954, pl. 53 (illustrated).
The Art Quarterly, no. 1, Spring 1956, p. 73.
F. Daulte, "L'Art français des XIXème et XXème siècles dans les collections suisses," Le Jardin des arts, no. 54, April 1959, p. 369 (illustrated).
F. Daulte, "Dans le sillage impressioniste," Connaissance des arts, no. 86, April 1959, pp. 78-79 (illustrated in color).
E. Mongan, Berthe Morisot: Drawings, Pastels, Watercolors, Paintings, New York, 1960, p. 175 (illustrated). M.-L. Bataille and G. Wildenstein, Berthe Morisot, Paris, 1961, p. 41, no. 267 (illustrated, fig. 285).
P. Huisman, Morisot-Charmes, Lausanne, 1962, p. 49 (illustrated).
A. Clairet, D. Montalant, and Y. Rouart, Berthe Morisot, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Montolivet, 1997, p. 247, no. 271 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Berthe Morisot (Madame Eugène Manet): Exposition de son oeuvre, March 1896, p. 23, no. 59.
Paris, Grand Palais, Salon d'Automne: Berthe Morisot, 1907, no. 15.
Paris, Manzi, Joyant et Cie, Exposition d'art moderne, June-July 1912, no. 52.
Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst, Fransk Malerkunst fra det 19nde Aarhundredi, May-June 1914, p. 38, no. 155.
Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, Exposition d'oeuvres de Berthe Morisot: au profit des "Amis du Luxembourg", May 1929, no. 87.
London, Leicester Galleries, Berthe Morisot, March-April 1930, no. 44.
Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie, Berthe Morisot: 1841-1895, 1941, no. 90.
Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Berthe Morisot, Malerier, Akvareller og Tegningen, August-September 1949, no. 39.
London, Arts Council of Great Britain, Berthe Morisot: An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings, 1950, no. 41.
Geneva, Galerie Motte, Exposition Berthe Morisot, June 1951, no. 9.
Art Gallery of Toronto and elsewhere, Berthe Morisot and Her Circle, 1952-54, no. 18 (illustrated, pl. 16).
New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, 1956, no. 86.
The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, The Ragnar Moltzau Collection, April-June 1957, no. 59.
Musée de Dieppe, Exposition Berthe Morisot, July-September 1957, no. 41.
Vevey, Switzerland, Musée Jenisch, De Monet à Chagall: Collection Rosensaft, June-September 1958, no. 18 (illustrated, pl. 10).
Paris, Petit Palais, De Géricault à Matisse: Chefs d'oeuvre français des collections Suisses, March-May 1959, no. 98.
New York, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Loan Exhibition of Paintings: Berthe Morisot, November-December 1960, no. 52 (illustrated).
Vevey, Switzerland, Musée Jenisch, Berthe Morisot, June-September 1961, no. 18 (illustrated, pl. 10).
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Collects, July-September 1968, p. 29, no. 136.
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, and South Hadley, Massachusetts, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Berthe Morisot, Impressionist, September 1987-May 1988, pp. 158, 160-161 and 222, no. 94 (illustrated in color, p. 61, pl. 94).
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, A Very Private Collection: Janice H. Levin's Impressionist Pictures, November 2002-February 2003, pp. 75-77, no. 19 (illustrated, p. 76).
The Birmingham Museum of Art and elsewhere, An Impressionist Eye: Painting and Sculpture from the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, February 2004-January 2005.

Special notice

No sales tax is due on the purchase price of this lot if it is picked up or delivered in the State of New York.

Post lot text

*This lot may be tax exempt from the sales tax as set forth in the Sales Tax Notice at the back of the catalogue.

Lot Essay

In 1891, after returning to Paris from a summer sojourn in Mézy, a small village in the valley of the Seine, Berthe Morisot began several new paintings using her daughter Julie and family friends as models. In Jeune fille écrivant, Morisot captures her daughter Julie, aged twelve, in a private moment of contemplation and quietude, reading a book at a desk by the window, bathed in natural sunlight. This painting is a superlative example of Morisot's late style, when she became increasingly interested in the effects of intense sunlight on her subjects, expressing this effect with a vibrant color palette and spontaneous, sketch-like, undulating brushstrokes. "Morisot increasingly sought to solve color decisions with drawing and drawing decisions with color." (W.P. Scott, "Morisot's Style and Technique", Berthe Morisot, Impressionist, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1987, p. 187). Her work in pastel, charcoal and watercolor led her to experiment with this rapid, flickering style of brushwork that she eventually applied to her oil paintings, earning her a reputation as a leading exponent of the Impressionist technique.

In Jeune fille écrivant Morisot portrays Julie languorously reading at her desk, her chin propped on her arm and her legs neatly crossed under the table. The large window in the background provides a centralized grid that is counterbalanced by the free and sinuous brushstrokes that create the curtains, the flow of her hair and dress and the swirling colors of the room. There are subtle highlights of white within the window panes and dappled in the interior, intimating a crisp winter day and the cold and stillness outside, providing a stark contrast to the warmth and vibrancy of life found inside Morisot's home.

(fig. 1) Photograph of Julie Manet, age 16
BARCODE: 20626792

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