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Gain access to this incredible resource through either a monthly or a yearly subscription and search the entire collection from your desktop, compare multiple images side by side and zoom into the minute details of the images. Visit www.davidrumsey.com/amica for more information on the collection, click on the link below the revolving thumbnail to the right, or email us at amica@luna-img.com . Creator Name: Pissarro, Camille Creator Dates/Places: French, 1830 - 1903 Creator Name-CRT: Camille Pissarro Title: Bather with Geese View: Full View Creation Start Date: 1895 Creation End Date: 1895 Creation Date: 1895 Object Type: Drawings and Watercolors Materials and Techniques: Pen, ink, lead white gouache, paper Dimensions: Overall: 7 1/2 x 8 1/4 x 1 1/2 in. (19.05 x 20.95 x 3.81 cm.) AMICA Contributor: Dallas Museum of Art Owner Location: Dallas, Texas, USA ID Number: 1985.R.43 Credit Line: Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection Rights: http://www.DallasMuseumofArt.org Context: Berthe Morisot and her husband, Eugène Manet (the brother of Edouard Manet), spent the cold winter months of 1881-1882 in the Mediterranean port of Nice at the fashionable Hôtel Richmond, where the artist practiced her technique on the most shifting of subjects - the harbor. Although brisk, the weather was warm enough to allow her to work out-of-doors or, at the very least, from her hotel window, as the wonderful light of the French Riviera inspired her to trap its effects on the water in paint. This small painting is among the most successful of the several she made on that campaign, and the artist chose it for inclusion in the penultimate impressionist exhibit of 1882. The paint was barely dry on the canvas when she had it framed and took it to the galleries, where it hung almost like a watercolor amid larger and bolder works by her male colleagues."The Port of Nice" is a study in modesty and apparent carelessness. Its strokes, of varying dimensions, textures, and lengths, force the viewer to think of the representation "as" a painting. Many of her strokes, especially those in the large area of the water, refuse to "represent" anything other than themselves, suggesting that the water was too choppy to reflect the buildings, boats, or riggings. The boldest and most fundamental decisions made by Morisot were about composition, and they were clearly made before she even began to paint. First, she decided to downplay the sky, preferring to study the effect of light on form. Second, she decided to push the boats and buildings into a band at the top of the painting. This led her to order the area of the water by placing the bow of the boat as it enters the water directly at the center of the composition. Hence, the composition is controlled and deliberate, even though it appears to be random.Morisot's achievements as a painter can be set into relief when one compares this small canvas with the almost exactly contemporary painting by Georges Seurat in the Reves Collection. [see Dallas Museum of Art, 1985.R.68] Whereas Seurat's painting is stiffened with an apparent rigor of composition, Morisot's seems inchoate. Yet, just the opposite is true: not a single line or form is placed in a geometrical manner in Seurat's painting, whereas Morisot's canvas is held together with a rigorous logic. For Morisot, the "touch" was informal and the composition was formal. For Seurat, the opposite was true."Impressionist Paintings Drawings and Sculpture from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection," page 81 AMICA ID: DMA_.1985.R.43 AMICA Library Year: 2003 Media Metadata Rights: AMICA PUBLIC RIGHTS: a) Access to the materials is granted for personal and non-commercial use. b) A full educational license for non-commercial use is available from Cartography Associates at www.davidrumsey.com/amica/institution_subscribe.html c) Licensed users may continue their examination of additional materials provided by Cartography Associates, and d) commercial rights are available from the rights holder. Home
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