WASHINGTON, D.C.- At the heart of Impressionism was an enigmatic, powerful and talented woman: Berthe Morisot. Although often overlooked, Morisot was an integral member of the Impressionist movement who continually defied traditional expectations of women. Berthe Morisot: An Impressionist and Her Circle celebrates Morisot’s extraordinary contribution to the history of modern art. By juxtaposing her work with that of her contemporaries, including Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Edouard Manet and Pierre Auguste Renoir, this exhibition reveals Morisot’s true legacy as a champion of individuality, creativity and modernity. Berthe Morisot: An Impressionist and Her Circle features more than 75 paintings and drawings by Morisot and her colleagues, and is on view at the National Museum of Women in the Arts from January 14 through May 8, 2005.

“Morisot’s rightful place in the history of art is at the heart of our mission at the Women’s Museum,” stated NMWA Director Judy L. Larson. “The Women’s Museum is honored to exhibit these significant works.”

The exhibition highlights works from the last 20 years of Morisot’s career, which show her colorful, vivid style in full bloom as she moved away from the influence of Manet toward the colorism and abstraction that paralleled the work of Renoir and Pissarro. The works are drawn from the Denis and Annie Rouart Collection, one of the most important French collections of avant-garde painting. In 1997, the collection was bequeathed to the Musée Marmotten Monet in Paris. This exhibition marks the first time that paintings from the collection have been on view in the United States.

Morisot was born in Bourges, France, on June 14, 1841. Her family moved to Paris when she was 11, where her privileged upbringing included tutors for languages, literature, and, in 1857, art lessons. Along with her older sister Edma, Morisot quickly gained skills and a passion for painting, and they progressed through various teachers as their talents grew. Part of their studies involved copying works at the Louvre, but their preferred method was plein-air landscape painting. Eventually, they studied under the direction of Barbizon painter Camille Corot.

Morisot and her sister Edma were close companions who modeled and served as chaperones for each other. Together they began exhibiting at the annual Paris Salon in 1864. Unlike Edma, who abandoned her career for marriage in 1869, Morisot continued to exhibit at the Salon until 1873, the year before the Impressionist movement began.

In the winter of 1867, Morisot was introduced to the groundbreaking French painter Edouard Manet. Morisot’s bond with Manet was strong, and she appeared in 11 of his paintings over the next five years. She also befriended his brother Eugène, whom she wed in 1874 at age 33.

While Morisot learned much from Edouard Manet, she was never a student of his and often disagreed with his opinions. Her decision to join the Impressionists is an important example of her independence since Manet pressured her to remain separate from the group. In 1874, Edgar Degas asked her to exhibit with him and others such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet, independent of the Paris Salon. Degas and his companions felt Morisot’s pictorial technique of loose brushstrokes, softened lines, and light-filled color, as in Boats Under Construction (1874), exemplified their aims.

The group held their first exhibition in 1874. Morisot was the only female artist to partake in the show and she remained faithful to Impressionism throughout her career. She participated in seven of the group’s eight exhibitions, missing only one the year she gave birth to her daughter, Julie (1878-1966). In fact, Morisot organized single-handedly the final Impressionist exhibition in 1886. Her first solo exhibition occurred only a few weeks after her husband’s death in 1892.

In the 1890s, Morisot’s work became more linear and deeply colored, and often featured her daughter, as in Julie Manet and her Greyhound Laertes (1893). When Morisot died suddenly at the age of 54 in the influenza epidemic of 1895, her Impressionist colleagues mourned the loss profoundly. Fellow founding member Camille Pissarro wrote his son Lucien that “this distinguished woman … brought honor to our Impressionist group...”

Morisot’s friends took care of Julie after her mother’s death, and in 1900 she married Ernest Rouart, son of the affluent engineer and amateur artist Henri Rouart. The works of art that Julie inherited from her mother, including Morisot’s paintings and those of her colleagues, combined with those inherited by Rouart, to become one of the most important French Impressionist collections of painting.

Morisot succeeded as a professional artist, despite society’s expectations for women from upper middle-class families to acquire artistic training as a genteel hobby. With the steadfast support of Edma, her mother and other women close to her, Morisot was able to boldly defy convention for the sake of her art.