Morisot, Berthe (1841-1895)
Eugène Manet à l’Ile de Wight (Eugène Manet on the Isle of Wight)
1875
Oil on canvas, 38 × 46 cm
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris
On December 22, 1874, Berthe Morisot married Eugène Manet at the Church of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-de-Passy in Paris. Brother of the painter Édouard and the politician Auguste, Eugène led a discreet and leisurely life. Both from a bourgeois background, Berthe and her husband were free from financial worries, allowing them to devote themselves fully to their passion for the arts. Encouraged by her husband, Berthe continued her painting career after her marriage and continued to exhibit under her maiden name. Eugène even agreed to pose for his wife on rare occasions. This small painting, which she executed during their honeymoon in England, is the first she dedicated to him. Standing in the sitting room of the Globe Cottage hotel in Cowes, where the couple stayed on the Isle of Wight, Eugène is shown in profile at the left edge of the painting. More than on the figure, the painter’s interest lies in the description of the flowery garden and the quays seen through the window, whose effects of transparency and plays of light she skillfully renders. (Marmottan)
See also:
• Cowes | Isle of Wight (England) | Manet, Eugène (1833-1892)