“Hide and Seek”
“Hide and Seek” is a lovely oil on canvas painting by the French Impressionist artist, Berthe Morisot, from 1873. This piece was exhibited at the very first Impressionist art exhibition in Paris in 1874, along with three other paintings by Morisot.
Both Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt are generally regarded as the most important female artists of the late nineteenth century.
In this piece, Morisot depicted her sister, Edma, and Edma’s daughter, Jeanne, both of whom Morisot had painted several times. Morisot’s subjects, such as this one here, were generally of women and domestic life, both in and out of doors.
Berthe and Edma Morisot were born into a fairly successful middle-class family with some deep artistic roots. Their father studied architecture at the esteemed École des Beaux Arts in Paris, and their mother was a descendant of the French Rococo artist, Jean-Honoré Fragonard. As such, Berthe and Edma Morisot spent their formative years studying art together. The sisters learned under various tutors including the famed artist, Camille Corot.
The two sisters were planning on pursuing art together. When Edma was married, she put her art aspirations to the side. Berthe, however, continued to paint. She continued even after her marriage in 1874 to Eugène Manet, Édouard Manet’s brother, right up until her death in 1895.
As a female artist in a male-dominated world, Morisot had difficulty being taken seriously as an artist. She continued to paint and exhibit her work. As her style matured, critics and art dealers alike began to take notice.
Morisot’s husband died in 1892 and Morisot continued to paint. Though Morisot never became a commercial success during her lifetime, she was able to fully support both her and her daughter.
“Hide and Seek” is currently in the collections of the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the United States.
For more on Berthe Morisot, please visit her short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
