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Review

Reviewed Work(s): Berthe Morisot by Anne Higonnet: Perspectives on Morisot by T. J.


Edelstein
Review by: Mary Tompkins Lewis
Source: Art Journal , Autumn, 1991, Vol. 50, No. 3, Censorship I (Autumn, 1991), pp.
92-95
Published by: CAA

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/777224

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Berthe
Berthe Morisot
Morisot
MARY TOMPKINS LEWIS

provides
provides an an
excellent
excellent
introduction
introduction
for those un-
for those
Anne un- Berthe
Higonnet.
Higonnet. Berthe Morisot.
Morisot.New
NewYork:
York: the heroic myths that surround
surround the
the achievements
achievements
familiar
familiar with
with
Dada.Dada.
RichlyRichly
factual, superbly Harper
Harper and
factual,il-superbly andil-
Row,
Row, 1990.
1990. 240
240pp.;
pp.;40
40black-and-
black-and- of her male peers but the
the social
social and
and human
human real-
real-
lustrated
lustrated (reproductions
(reproductions
are wellare
apportioned be-white
white ills.
well apportionedills. $25.00
$25.00
be- ities under which many
many of
of the
the Impressionists,
Impressionists, as
as
tween
tween thethe
artworks
artworks
and theand
documentary
the documentary
T. J. Edelstein,
Edelstein, ed.
ed. Perspectives
Perspectiveson onMorisot. Newwell as women painters
Morisot.New painters of
of other
other schools,
schools, labored.
labored.
materials
materials so important
so important
to the movement),
to the movement),
with anYork: Hudson
with an Hills Press in association with Interestingly, Morisot appears
appears as
as aa far
far less
less demure
demure
extensive
extensive chronology
chronology
and a massive
and a bibliography
massive bibliography
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, 1990. or self-deprecating figure
figure than
than the
the selected
selected quo-
quo-
of
of716
716entries,
entries,
The Dada
TheMovement:
Dada Movement:
1915-19231201915-1923
pp.; 24 color ills., 53 black-and-white. $35. tations from her letters
letters might
might suggest.
suggest. Her
Her stead-
stead-
has
hasmuch
muchto recommend
to recommend
it. Dachy,
it.based
Dachy,
on his
based on his fast ambition to succeed
succeed professionally
professionally and
and in
in the
the
preparedness
preparedness to doto
more,
do more,
now andnow
again and
over-again over- radical arena of Impressionism
Impressionism in
in itself
itself challenged,
challenged,
shoots
shoots hishis
targeted
targeted
audience
audience
and falls and
shortfalls As young
of fully
short of wives,
fullyyoung mothers, women will have as the author convincingly
convincingly argues,
argues, accepted
accepted no-
no-
connecting
connecting withwith
another.
another.
Perhaps Perhaps
this is less this
causeto
isrenounce,
less cause
forperiods of time at least, the sanc- tions of femininity in the
the nineteenth
nineteenth century.
century.
for
forcriticism
criticismthanthan
grounds
grounds
for looking
forforward to tioned
looking joys to
aforward art agives. Sanctioned, that is, when Higonnet is equally skillful
skillful at
at enframing
enframing
next
nextbook
book
designed
designed
with awith
more scholarly
a more reader-such art
scholarly is not too absorbing, when it does not her personal history of
reader- of the
the artist
artist with
with aa vivid
vivid pic-
pic-
ship in mind. take precedence over the sacred obligations of ture of the Parisian art
art world
world and
and bourgeois
bourgeois life
life in
in
woman. 1 general during the Franco-Prussian
Franco-Prussian War
War and
and the
the
Notes early years of the Third
Third Republic.
Republic. Her
Her animated
animated
1. Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces (Cambridge: Harvard Univer-
ince the ground-breaking retrospective of account of the siege of
of Paris,
Paris, for
for example-during
example-during
sity Press, 1989). A curious dependency exists between the
the painter's work that opened at the Na- part of which the painter's
painter's family
family in
in Passy
Passy sub-
sub-
radically different character of their intentions. Art writer, mu-
tional Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., in
sic critic (Village Voice), and columnist (California Magazine),
sisted on crackers-and of
of the
the brief
brief ensuing
ensuing Com-
Com-
Marcus's work is based equally in the1987, Berthe Morisot of
disillusionment has Punk
been the subject of a mune is capped with a discussion
discussion of
of the
the way
way such
such
and the utopianism of Situationism. Understandably, he that
number of scholarly tracts seeks
have vividly resus- events "galvanized and polarized
polarized opinion"
opinion" and
and
to rationalize or warrant his '60s and '70s positions with a
citated her quiet life and art.2 In addition to bring- affected "both the politics
politics of
of government
government and
and the
the
history. Ironically enough, it is history, which Marcus uses to
ing a new critical eye to bear on her contributions politics of art" (p. 73). Immediately
Immediately following
following the
the
underwrite the significance of his thesis, but in which he is in
to Impressionism-contributions
no way involved as a producer, that lends his work its authority. deemed essen- war and Commune, we learn
learn that
that Morisot
Morisot be-
be-
tial (Magdalen
Cultural historian Richard Sheppard by critics andCollege,
peers in her
Ox-own day but gan to question the conservatism
conservatism of
of her
her bourgeois
bourgeois
ford) is obsessively attentive to the evidence
strangely by since-recent
forgotten which one scholarship on upbringing and likewise
likewise toto distance
distance herself
herself
establishes the intentions of the historical agent. Meth-
Morisot has also revealed the narrow and overtly from her former alliances with Pierre Puvis de
odologically impeccable in his research design and exhaustive
in his critical analysis, he nevertheless depends for his audience
masculine view of the urban Impressionist land- Chavannes and Henri Fantin-Latour, and to align
on the assessment by the present scape
of thethat has been perpetuated
relevance of the in critical studies her art with the more radical painting of Manet
of the movement. The bustling
historical problems he addresses. Zurich-Dadaco-Dadaglobe: boulevards, and Edgar Degas. What is more, she seems to
The Correspondence between Richard Huelsenbeck, Tristan
crowded cafes, and roving eye of the quintessen- have recognized early on the bold new market
Tzara, and Kurt Wolff (1916-1924) (Tayport, Fife: Hutton
tial flaneur in Baron Haussmann's modern Paris possibilities for artists the republican regime
Press, 1982) is characteristic of the best aspects of Sheppard's
scholarship. had little place in the experience of women like would bring, and adroitly followed suit.
2. Tristan Tzara, "Zurich Chronicle," in Richard Huelsenbeck, Morisot, a sedate member of the haute bour- The author is at her best, perhaps, in de-
ed., Dada Almanach (Berlin, 1920; New York: Something Else geoisie, who nonetheless shared her male co-scribing the heady atmosphere in the Paris art
Press, 1966).
horts' ambition to render scenes of modern life in world in the 1870s and 1880s, one in which a new
3. Manuel Grossman, Dada: Paradox, Mystification, and Am-
biguity in European Literature (New York: Pegasus, 1971),
a bold, painterly shorthand. In her biography of breed of dealers (especially the maverick Paul
19-47. Grossman's three precursors of Dada include Alfred the artist, Anne Higonnet describes a more shel- Durand-Ruel), middle-class consumers, and inde-
Jarry, Arthur Cravan, and Jacques Vache. Chapter 2 covers pre- tered, quotidian world, one that was also cele- pendent exhibitions began to play major roles.
Dada in New York, while the Dada movement in Zurich, Berlin,
brated in Impressionist painting, as well as theWhile her discussion of Impressionism as a class-
Cologne, Hanover, and Paris is discussed in chapter 3. Of the
social and ideological constraints that governedspecific art could have easily become stale fare,
featured poets and "anti-poets," not one is from Berlin, Co-
the life of women within its codified domain. BothHigonnet's emphasis on what she perceives as
logne, or Hanover.
4. See Estera Milman, "Dada New York: An Historiographic figure at the center of Morisot's achievement,Morisot's strategy to capitalize on the oppor-
Analysis," in Stephen C. Foster, ed., Dada/Dimensions (Ann which, as Higonnet makes clear, was more sub- tunities the bourgeois-driven movement offered
Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1985), 165-86. Milman offers a
stantial and astutely orchestrated than is generally to women artists in particular demonstrates an
carefully argued discussion of New York Dada as a purely
historiographic- phenomenon and provides a useful antidote
perceived. appreciable ability to recast much recent research
to the kind of Dada realism characteristic of much of the Her biography is intricately structured to in the field from the viewpoint of her subject. Thus
literature.
establish the resolute balance Morisot wrought Morisot's lack of a classical education, a Beaux-
5. The relationship of Dada to Surrealism has been hotly
between the conflicting demands of her life as a Arts training, and a rigorous study of the nude,
debated. For the most instructive discussion, see Robert Short,
professional artist and bourgeois woman. In chap- and her preference for easel-sized or smaller can-
"Paris Dada and Surrealism," in Richard Sheppard, ed., Dada:
ter 3, for example, titled "Alliances 1872-1874,"
Studies of a Movement (Buckinghamshire: Alpha Academic, vases, a sketchlike finish, and the kind of everyday
1979), 75-98. Higonnet interweaves discussions of Morisot's de- domestic imagery long considered appropriate for
6. See Dada-Constructivism, exh. cat. (London: Annely Juda
cision to join the emerging circle of the Impres- women painters became, with Impressionism, not
Fine Art, 1984).
sionists with her courtship and marriage to so much the happenstance of gender. Instead,
Edouard Manet's brother, Eugene, whom she wed because of these gaps in a structured art educa-
in December 1874. The result overall is a remarka- tion as it would have been defined at the time,
S T E P H E N C. FO S T E R, professor of art history at the
University of Iowa, is general editor of the thirteen-volume bly intimate portrait of personal struggle, profes- circumstances provided Morisot with a point of
Crisis and the Arts: A History of Dada (G. K. Hall, 1991-95).sional determination, and vision that reveals not departure similar to that of her male peers, and

FALL 1991

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therefore an essential link, early on in the move- In her discussion of Manet's first monu- problematic relationship between Manet and
ment to which she would be so faithful, to its mental portrait of Morisot in his large genre piece Morisot as painter and female model, and recon-
origins and aims. Higonnet argues persuasively of 1868-69, The Balcony, Higonnet describes the structs the iconographic tradition behind Repose,
that Morisot realized that Impressionism "offered magnetic and alluring presence of Morisot as a which to nineteenth-century viewers was red-
her the opportunity to negotiate a compromise model and her profound intelligence as a fellow olent of sensual libertinage. By employing the
between personal and professional imperatives" painter (pp. 55-60), both of which aspects would same suggestive, indolent pose he had used ear-
and, working within its margins, "negotiated a figure powerfully in Manet's numerous portraits lier to paint the mistresses of his friends Charles
narrow but almost uncannily astute path between of her from the following decade. One of these, Baudelaire and Nadar, and subsequently, the bo-
the demands of society and those of art" (p. 99). his Repose of 1870 (fig. 1), was subjected to un- hemian Nina de Callias, mistress of the poet
While Higonnet's biography is graced with usually harsh abuse-even for Manet-with Charles Cros, Manet's image of Morisot became
lucid prose, wit, and the author's strong sense of critics deriding it as "dirty," "slovenly," in "bad infected, in a sense, by the actual lives of his more
identity with her subject, the scant analysis of taste," and "an indecent and barbarous smear" scandalous subjects. Moreover, as Farwell estab-
individual paintings-especially of the type that (p. 45). In her essay "Manet, Morisot, and Propri- lishes, all of these portraits drew from an icon-
so distinguished the exhibition catalogue-and ety," Beatrice Farwell explores penetratingly the ographic tradition that extended back to
an unfortunate lack of illustrations of Morisot's

work seriously hamperthe reader's understanding


of her artistic development and boldly original 93
achievement within the Impressionist circle. These
lacunae will no doubt be redressed in Higonnet's
subsequent (and at this writing, forthcoming) vol-
ume on Morisot's paintings,3 but the inclusion
here of eleven of Manet's striking portraits of the
painter and additional works by Degas alongside
only a few of Morisot's later self-portraits argues
against the calculated mastery the author ascribes
with such enthusiasm to her subject. Additionally,
more extensive references and a somewhat less

selective bibliography would further enhance the


book's obvious usefulness for future scholarship in
the field. Finally, the author's scattered personal
musings on, for example, the roles of physical
attraction (p. 115), love and dependence in marital
relationships (p. 181) seem strange intrusions into
the highly informative and scholarly flow of her
biography as a whole. But these last points are
only minor quibbles with a commendable study of
a neglected painter whom Higonnet establishes
as occupying "a central place in the history of
women artists, a history she could not foresee
because she was so much one of its pioneers"
(p. 222).
Many of the most crucial critical issues
raised by Higonnet relating to Morisot's position
and work as a woman artist are addressed in

greater depth in Perspectives on Morisot, a fas-


cinating collection of essays that focuses on the
patronage, iconography, sources, and social and
critical milieu of her painting. Edited by T J. Edel-
stein, former director of Mount Holyoke College
Art Museum, and originally presented as lectures
at a symposium held in conjunction with the
aforementioned exhibition, the essays represent a
variety of methodological viewpoints and a
wealth of contextual information to which all fu-

ture students of Morisot's painting will be in-


debted. Moreover, they establish a depth and
complexity in Morisot's vision and imagery that
FIG. 1 Edouard Manet, Repose, oil on canvas, 1870. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design,
Higonnet's biography only suggests. bequest of the Estate of Mrs. Edith Stuyvesant Vanderbilt Gerry.

ART JOURNAL

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FIG . 2 Berthe Morisot, View of Paris from the Trocadero, oil on canvas, 1871 or 1872. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, gift of Mrs. Hugh N. Kirkland.

eighteenth-century painting, in which fictive ground and crowded but blurred distant skyline, waitresses, and as Nochlin points out, prostitutes,
demimondes were identified by their like attitudes and her female figures' marked lack of interest in that buttressed the structures of suburban bour-

of casual languor. The author's suggestion that the vista beyond the railings that immure them, geois life, yet were often conflated with the notion
Manet's deliberate flouting of the traditions of put forth a radically different vision from Manet's. of leisure. In Wet Nurse, the highly visible marks of

formal portraiture and rules of pictorial decorum Her painting of Paris viewed from Passy finds its the painter's facture, and thus of her work or
in his allusive portrait was in fact a tribute to his subject not so much on the distant horizon but presence as an artist, and her unflinchingly objec-
subject's own progressive views is not entirely rather in its commanding and circumscribed fore- tive painting of her daughter with a hired wet
convincing, but Morisot doubtless appreciated ground, and thus in the more secluded, feminine nurse present coincidental images of women's la-
the portrait's radical modernity and wealth of spaces of the suburbs. It was this demure but bor from two different social realms, with the
meaning, here uncovered for modern viewers. intricate hermeticism that Morisot immortalized in work of the lower-class servant freeing the bour-
Both visually and geographically, Mori- her paintings. Adler rightly observes that Morisot's geois woman to paint as a professional.7 While
sot's imagery is one of pervasive boundaries and peaceful image from the Trocadero gardens effec- additional and more psychoanalytical interpreta-
delimiting edges that describe the social and psy- tively erases any memories of the ravages Passy tions of Morisot's strikingly original perspective-
chological constraints imposed upon women in had so recently experienced as the Commune as a woman painting another woman nursing her
nineteenth-century France. In earlier publications, collapsed under fire in its midst in May 1871. Yet baby-have yet to be offered, Nochlin's examina-
Kathleen Adler has explored the polar contrast one could argue that this painting is only one of tion of the subtle intersection of class and gender
between depictions of modern life in the Paris many she (and other Impressionists) produced in the painting offers substantial insight into the
suburbs, as epitomized by Morisot's paintings of that "visually reinforces the strength of an ideol- complexity beneath the surface of her seemingly
women's private and social rituals in Passy, and in ogy that decreed that the bourgeoisie should exist typical Impressionist imagery.
the more public and heroic sphere of the modern in a protective sphere, isolated from the man's Morisot's fidelity to the original aesthetic
city, almost exclusively the domain of men.4 In the world of business and of war" (p. 40). of Impressionism was virtually without parallel
present volume, Adler's essay, "The Spaces of Ev- The broader issue of class structure figures among her peers. As early as 1877 the critic Paul
eryday Life: Berthe Morisot and Passy," focuses only occasionally in Morisot's paintings of the fe- Mantz wrote in Le Temps: "The truth is that
her discussion of this surburban feminine context male bourgeois world, but is central to one of her there's only one Impressionist in the rue Le Peletier
around Morisot's View of Paris from the Trocadero most formally daring compositions, the Wet group: that is Berthe Morisot."8 And in 1881,
(fig. 2), which was painted in 1871 or 1872 from Nurse of 1879 (private collection, Washington, during the aptly termed "crisis of Impressionism"
the popular public gardens overlooking the Seine D.C.).6 In "Morisot's Wet Nurse: The Construction when so many of its earlier adherents were begin-
in Passy, quite near the Morisot family home. In of Work and Leisure in Impressionist Painting," ning to move into other modes, Gustave Geoffroy
the past the painting has inevitably been com- Linda Nochlin links her discussion of Morisot's would still claim that "no one represents Impres-
pared to Manet's Universal Exhibition of 1867 dazzling, sketchlike technique in the portrait of sionism with more refined talent or with more
(Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo), and interpreted as yet her daughter and nurse with the artist's concep- authority than Morisot."9 In a fascinating essay,
another panorama of Haussmann's revitalized tion of this variation of a maternit6 theme as a "Berthe Morisot and the Feminizing of Impres-
Paris.5 Instead, as Adler establishes, Morisot's in- scene of lower-class women's labor. Nochlin's brief sionism," that provides a crucial and broader criti-

sistently loose technique separates her painting survey of the highly regulated industry of wet cal and historical context for many of the contri-
from the tradition of densely informational, urban nursing in nineteenth-century France establishes butions in this volume, Tamar Garb traces the
topographical views. Its profound sense of physi- it as yet another of the essential lower-class female critical reception of Morisot's paintings from the
cal divide between the more vacant, tranquil fore- professions, along with that of nannies, barmaids, 1870s until the artist's death in 1895, and reveals

FALL 1991

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Goya
OSCAR E. VAZQUEZ

the
thepervasively
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gender-conscious
nature of the
nature
Jose of the
Jose Manuel
Manuel Arnaiz.
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on study on
tual
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sensibilite.
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of the of
cartoons
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light,
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which,as Garb
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documents,
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n
n recent
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have
have
delighted in tapestries,
delightedtapestries,
in which
which
left left
muchmuch
to be done
to be
ondone
the on the
reflections in the conservative medical and an- the dramatic increase in studies and exhibi- bocetos
bocetos(oil(oil
sketches).3
sketches).3
Arnaiz
Arnaiz
relies extensively
relies extensively
on on
thropological treatises of the day, Morisot's bold tions on Spanish artists and themes. Fueled memos
memosand
and
receipts
receipts
of payments
of payments
for tapestry
for tapestry
car- car-
manifestation of some of Impressionism's freest,
by the politically and economically recharged toons
toonsand
andsketches
sketches
turned
turned
in by in
Goya
bytoGoya
the fac-
to the fac-
most untraditional techniques in such paintings post-Franco
as socialist governments, Spain (which tory
tory(most
(mostpublished
published
previously
previously
by Sambricio),
by Sambricio),
Wet Nurse or Summer's Day (National Gallery,
joined the Common Market in 1986) has enjoyed and
andhe
heincludes
includes
in the
in catalogue
the catalogue
photographs
photographs
of of
a cultural flowering that has renewed world atten- many
London) became evidence of her primordial femi- manyofof
these
these
documents.
documents.
He alsoHe
includes
also includes
nine weaknesses rather than bold transgressions
tion on her artistic traditions and present innova- bocetos
bocetosand
and
preparatory
preparatory
drawings
drawings
for the for
car- the car-
against the art of the past. By the 1890s, in fact,
tions. In addition to the Spanish government's toons,
toons,and,
and,
whenever
whenever
possible,
possible,
he matches
he matches
tapes- tapes-
most critics "saw in Morisot's work the realization efforts, numerous public corporations and banks tries
trieswith
withannotated
annotated
descriptions
descriptions
from archival
from archival
of a well-adjusted femininity" (p. 63). And it have
is begun to promote the arts via exhibitions material.
material.However,
However,he often
he often
does not
does
clarify
not what
clarify what
probably this-the seemingly mute logic of her and publications.1 Among the larger traveling ex- specific
specificnew
new
additions,
additions,
subtractions,
subtractions,
or changes
or of
changes of
style and unthreatening feminine imagery of her
hibitions that have brought greater attention to attributions
attributions have
have
beenbeen
made made
to previously
to previously
pub- pub-
paintings-that has clouded our assessment of
Spain's cultural boom are those on Francisco de lished
lishedcatalogues,
catalogues,
forcing
forcing
the reader
the reader
to consult
to consult
Morisot's achievement. Zurbaran (Grand Palais, Paris, and Metropolitan Sambricio's
Sambricio's 1946
1946
work,
work,
JuttaJutta
Held's 1971
Held's
tapestry
1971 tapestry
Notes Museum of Art, New York, 1987), Ignacio Zuloaga study,
study,previous
previousessays
essays
on the
onsketches,
the sketches,
or the or the
I am grateful to Alden Gordon and Michael Mahoney for (Spanish Institute, New York, 1989), Joaquin earliest
earliestpublications
publications
on the
ontapestries
the tapestries
by Gregorio
by Gregorio
providing a forum for the ideas expressed here, and to the Sorolla (San Diego Museum of Art, 1989), and Cruzada
CruzadaVillaamil,
Villaamil,
who who
discovered
discovered
the majority
the majority
of of
Henry Fuller Endowment at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.,
Diego de Velazquez (Prado, Madrid, 1990), to Goya
Goyacartoons
cartoons
in the
in the
1870s.4
1870s.4
The book's
The strength
book's strength
for support.
name just a few. The works of Francisco de Goya lies
liesininthe
the
rigid
rigid
compilation
compilation
of documents
of documents
and and
1. Baronne Staffe, La Femme dans la famille (Paris, n.d.), 56;
quoted in Higonnet, Berthe Morisot, 78 and 226, n. 1. have been of special interest as evidenced by a dates,
dates,but
butit is
it weakened
is weakened
by a lack
by of
a lack
analysis
of and
analysis
a and a
2. See Charles F. Stuckey and William P. Scott, Berthe Morisot: 1989 exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Bos- failure
failuretoto
fully
fully
evaluate
evaluate
previous
previous
scholarship
scholarship
in the in the
Impressionist, exh. cat. (New York: Hudson Hills Press for ton, by publications investigating his Black paint- field.
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in association with the
ings and his patrons,2 and now by two books In contrast, Janis Tomlinson's Francisco
National Gallery of Art, 1987). Additional recent or revised
studies of the artist include Kathleen Adler and Tamar Garb, reexamining the hitherto under-appreciated tap- Goya: The Tapestry Cartoons and Early Career at
Berthe Morisot (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1987); estry cartoons and sketches. the Court of Madrid focuses almost solely on the
and Denis Rouart, ed., Berthe Morisot The Correspondence Jose Manuel Arnaiz's Francisco de Goya: cartoons, with periodic references to sketches and
with Family and Friends, trans. Betty W. Hubbard with a new
Cartones y Tapices helps to reorganize much of other corollary material. While similarly con-
introduction and notes by Kathleen Adler and Tamar Garb
the already existing tapestry documentation into a structed in a chronological format, Tomlinson's is
(Pans, 1950; Mt. Kisco, N.Y.: Moyer Bell Limited, 1987).
3. To be published by Harvard University Press, 1991. one-volume reference tool, also with better qual- an iconological study in the Warburg school tradi-
4. See Kathleen Adler, "The Suburban, the Modern, and 'une ity and more numerous reproductions than of- tion and avoids issues of connoisseurship, opting
Dame de Passy,'" Oxford Art Journal 12, no. 1 (1989): 3-13. fered in earlier publications. It is the first serious to focus instead on specific sources of influence, in
5. Adler cites Theodore Reff's discussion of Manet's painting in
compilation of sketches for the cartoons; how- tune with the concerns of current Goya scholar-
Manet and Moder Paris, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: Na-
tional Gallery of Art, 1982), 38.
ever, the actual scholarly contributions of the new ship. For these iconographic explorations she relies

6. On Morisot's radical technique in Wet Nurse, see also catalogue are not easily distinguishable from ear- on a plethora of material, from contemporary dic-
Stuckey and Scott, Berthe Morisot, 88. lier studies. Arnaiz's work is a chronological com- tionaries to sainetes (short plays), from published
7. Kathleen Adler has also suggested that "the parasol and
poems to emblemata books, although she never
pilation of the major cartoon cycles commissioned
bonnet, on the grass on either side of the nurse, are indicative
between 1775 and 1792 by Charles III and the allows her amassing of documents to distract the
of the bourgeoisie freed for leisure-or in Morisot's case for
painting-by the servant" ("The Suburban, the Modern, and young Charles IV and his wife Maria Luisa for the reader from the suggested readings of Goya's
'une Dame de Passy,'" 9-10). Escorial and the Pardo palaces, as well as the series compositions.
8. Paul Mantz, "L'Exposition des peintres impressionistes," Le commissioned for the Alameda by the Duke and By comparing metaphoric content in
Temps, April 22,1877.
Duchess of Osuna. The discussion of these series Goya's cartoons with the works of contempo-
9. Gustave Geoffroy, "L'Exposition des artistes indepen-
dants," La Justice, April 19,1881. is preceded by a brief but highly informative his- raries, Tomlinson beats the dusty, traditional views
tory of the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bar- of rococo "prettiness" out of Goya's tapestry de-

MARY TOMPKINS LEWIS, author of Cezanne's bara in Madrid, for which the tapestry cartoons signs. She argues against simplistic interpretations
Early Imagery (University of California Press, 1989), is were painted, and touches upon the factory's of Goya's works either as examples of rococo aris-
writing a book on Mary Cassatt's opera paintings. commerce, trade, and Netherlandish roots. In tocratic vanities, or as the revolutionary results of

ART JOURNAL

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