LUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.- The Speed Art Museum presents today Berthe Morisot: An Impressionist and Her Circle, on view through September 18, 2005. Impressionism is arguably the world's most popular art movement. Berthe Morisot: An Impressionist and Her Circle establishes the artist as a central figure of the movement, showing her paintings, prints, watercolors, and drawings alongside those of her more recognized male colleagues: Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Claude Monet. Visitors will be able to view more than 75 works-about 15 of them by her artistic circle and her daughter, Julie-drawn from one of the most important French collections of avant-garde painting, the Denis and Annie Rouart Collection, and on display for the first time in the U.S. Bequeathed to the Musée Marmottan-Monet in Paris in 1997, some of these works date from the artist's original collecting efforts.

Her budding artistic talent, and that of her older sister Edma, was nurtured by visits to the Louvre to copy masterpieces and painting out of doors under the direction of legendary landscape painter Camille Corot. She first exhibited at the illustrious annual Salon in 1864, at the age of 23, and continued to participate through 1873 despite the fact that her sister eventually married, thereby giving up her own artistic career. However, Edma, her mother, and other women close to her continued to provide Morisot with the strength and companionship that enabled her boldly to defy convention for the sake of her art. Their influence is also apparent in the numerous images that Morisot painted of her mother, sisters, and nieces, as well as of her own daughter Julie, to whom she gave birth in 1878, and who would become her favorite model and painting companion. Carefully composed, these studies not only highlight Morisot's abilities but confirm the lifelong inspiration she drew from these women.
Always one to follow her beliefs, Morisot accepted an invitation by Edgar Degas in 1874 to join a fledgling group of painters, including Monet, Renoir, and Camille Pissarro, who later became known as the Impressionists. In joining the group she went against the advice of her longtime friend Edouard Manet, who became her brother-in-law when she wed his brother Eugène and who had a tremendous influence on her work. The Impressionists declared that Morisot's pictorial technique, with her loose brushstrokes, unfinished backgrounds, and light-infused color, exemplified their aesthetic aims. Morisot remained faithful to the Impressionists after others abandoned the movement, participating in seven of the eight exhibitions and single-handedly organizing the final show in 1886. She continued to paint and exhibit in her later years, receiving her first solo exhibition only a few weeks after her husband's death in 1892.

By juxtaposing Morisot's work next to that of her circle and examining her life and relationships, this exhibition hopes to help visitors understand her legacy as a full-fledged Impressionist: a champion of individuality, creativity, and modernity. The exhibition is generously sponsored by PNC.