Review: The Secret of Her Success

Reviewed Work(s): Berthe Morisot by Anne Higonnet

Review by: Felicia Kornbluh
Source: The Women's Review of Books , Nov., 1990, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Nov., 1990), pp. 13-14
Published by: Old City Publishing, Inc.

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 Te secret of her succes
by Felicia Kornbluh
Berthe Morisot, by Anne Higonnet. New York: Random House/Burlingame, 1990, 229
pp., $25.00 hardcover.
NEARLY TWENTY YEARS AGO Linda
Nochlin asked, in an essay of the
same name: "Why have there been no
great women artists?"' She answered by re-
defining the question, insisting that achiev-
ing greatness required very specific precon-
ditions which were as inaccessible to most
women until at least the late nineteenth cen-
tury as they have always been to poor peo-
ple. To prove her point, Nochlin seized on
the example of the nude: while drawing
from the nude figure was an incalculably
important training ground and credential
for students of art before the late nineteenth
century, it was absolutely off-limits for wo-
men artists. "Always the model but never
the artist might well have served as the mot-
to of the seriously aspiring young woman in
the arts of the nineteenth century," Nochlin
wrote. She added that in mid-nineteenth-
century France
there were a third as many female as
male artists ... none had attended
the major stepping stone to artistic
success, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts,
only 7 percent had received any
official commission or had held any
official office . . . only 7 percent had
ever received any Salon medal, and
none had ever received the Legion of
Honor. Deprived of encouragements,
educational facilities and rewards, it
is almost incredible that a certain per-
centage of women did persevere and
seek a profession in the arts.
Berthe Morisot is the story of one such
woman. Morisot was both model and painter considerable talents of her own."
-the haunting presence of Manet's "The
Balcony" as well as the author of poignant THE "OTHER WOMAN" in Berthe Morisot's
domestic scenes, complex self-portraits and
telling observations of women's social
place. She was a professional artist at a time purpose as a student of painting helped
when many young women of her class dab-
bled in painting and, as Nochlin indicates,
some chose artistic careers. But all faced se- and in terms of normative judgment. As
vere normative and material constraints,
and very few laid claim to the resources that ing paintings in the Louvre played at least as
cleared the path to greatness. In telling
Morisot's story, Higonnet stakes her own
claim to serious consideration as a rising
star of what we might call the second gener-
ation of feminist historians of art.
Berthe Morisot was an upper-class wo-
man of extraordinary talent and ambition,
and she was a study in contradiction. She
exhibited her paintings in public, openly
sought a market for her work, married late
and kept her own surname after marrying.
She maintained close friendships with
Manet, Renoir, Puvis de Chavannes and
other important artists of her day, but was
never eclipsed by them. She chose indepen-
dently to join the painters who exhibited
outside the official Salon and remained an
Impressionist for as long as the group held
together.
At the same time, Morisot was a dutiful
daughter, sister, wife and mother. Everyone
who met her thought her elegant, graceful
and beautifully dressed. Neither bluestock-
ing nor bohemian, she calculated her trans-
gressions of convention with tremendous
care. In so doing, she carved a social niche
that awarded her respectability and appar-
ent happiness, while also assuring her a ma-
jor place in the history of painting.
What allowed some women to defy the
norm as Morisot did? Nochlin suggested
that choosing a professional artistic career
had something to do with the support of
fathers, or of male artists of stature: women
artists, she wrote,
all, almost without exception, were
either the daughters of artist fathers,
or generally later, in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries, had a close
personal connection with a stronger
Berthe Morisot in Three-Quarters View, by
Edouard Manet, 1874. From Berthe Morisot.
or more dominant male artistic per-
sonality. Neither of these character-
istics is, of course, unusual for men
artists, either ... it is simply true
almost without exception for their
feminine counterparts.
Emerging from her careful study of
Morisot, Higonnet strenuously disagrees.
"Behind every great woman," she announces,doors. Perhaps most significantly, although
"is another woman. Perhaps the only com- many Impressionists cited Manet as a towering
mon denominator among nineteenth-centuryinfluence, he did not join that anti-establish-
women of outstanding public achievements
is their private bond to a female relative, al- against joining. Regardless of Manet's ad-
most always a sister, very often a sister with vice, from the Salon des Refuses of 1874 on,
case was her sister, Edma. Edma's
close companionship and common
Morisot overcome the hurdles her society
erected -both in terms of artistic training
Higonnet explains, the discipline of copy-
important a role in artistic training as did
drawing the nude. But Berthe Morisot could
never have gone to the Louvre alone:
During Morisot's youth, it was
unthinkable for an unmarried
middle-class woman to go anywhere
or do anything without a chaperone
... Morisot had the good fortune to
be able to circumvent [the] problem
[of needing an escort]. She never
needed to ask anyone to accompany
her. She was always with Edma. The
two sisters painted side by side. They
had identical notions of how much
time to spend painting, where to
spend it, and on what ... For twelve
important years [until Edma's mar-
riage] Morisot didn't have to choose
between painting and etiquette. (p. 31)
The sisters also provided each other with
needed encouragement, no matter what
others might think of them. And others
were not always kind. The painter and
teacher Joseph Guichard warned Berthe's
and Edma's parents at the end of their
studies with him:
With characters like your daughters',
my teaching will make them painters,
not minor amateur talents. Do you
really understand what that means?
In the world of the grande bour-
geoisie in which you move, it would
be a revolution, I would even say a
catastrophe. (p. 19)
Edouard Manet, who came to respect
Berthe Morisot as a colleague, wrote a year
after meeting them that "the misses Morisot
are delightful. What a shame they aren't
men; nonetheless they might, as women,
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serve the cause of painting by each marry- W E DO NOT HAVE to view Morisot as a
ing an Academician." The roots of artistic trans-historical "genius" or as a wo-
women's social transgression may well have man in debt to great men to under-
grown, as Nochlin suggested, from the fam- stand her early and complete participation
ily circle. But at least in Morisot's case they in the most radical artistic movement of her
did not emanate from her male parent, who day. The cultural conditions that led her to
appears as little in Higonnet's biography as make this choice were powerful, encasing
he did in Morisot's writing or in her mature both access to markets and fidelity to a spe-
paintings. Neither can Berthe Morisot's cifically feminine artistic heritage. In 1860,
achievements be attributed to her relation- Morisot began to paint out of doors. She
ship with Edouard Manet. It won't do, did not do so in compliance with the Im-
Nochlin insisted, for feminist scholars pressionist credo, which was years from be-
searching for a usable past "to demonstrate ing enunciated. In fact, although few pro-
that Berthe Morisot was really less depen- fessional male painters worked outdoors,
dent upon Manet than one had been led to numerous amateur women painters did.
think . . . " The choice, for Nochlin, appears Women could paint outdoors amidst other
to have lain between believing that female commitments (to friends, parents and chil-
artistic talents - "geniuses" in the tenacious dren), with light, portable materials and at
Romantic vocabulary - arose ex nihilo, and relatively manageable cost-since "fresh-
believing that they took their lead from air" painting did not require hiring a model
men. In at least this one significant case, or renting a studio.
Higonnet makes it clear that there are more Morisot's decision to accept Degas's invi-
satisfying, and persuasive, options. tation to join the first Impressionist show in
Berthe and Edma Morisot met the Manet 1874 was more complex. Higonnet explains
brothers in 1868. Berthe married Eugene it first with a concise encapsulation of the
Manet in December 1874, when she was 33 Impressionist "revolution" itself:
years old. In between, she did model for, lis-
The Academic [Salon] system
ten to and, in one regretted instance, aban-
created, defended, and perpetuated
don a portion of a painting to, Edouard
hierarchies of importance based on
Manet. But the most important decisions in
classical erudition and the ideological
her career -including whether to have one
imperatives of a monarchist or
at all-were Morisot's own. Manet's judg-
imperial state backed by the Catholic
ment was irrelevant to Morisot's decision to
Church ... Decades before the
study with Corot, to work in the Louvre, to
Impressionists adopted a program-
exhibit at the Salon (her first work was sub-
matic position on subject matter,
mitted in 1864 and admitted in 1865), to sell
market pressures had begun to erode
her works at auction and to paint out of
this hierarchy's viability; pictures that
continued to benefit from state
patronage did not necessarily enjoy
the favor of middle-class viewers and
ment movement, and advised Morisot
buyers. (p. 96)
The difference betw
Morisot's commitment to the Impression- -based in state patronage, typified and
ists never wavered. maintained through the Salon - and the
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The Women's Review of Books / Vol. VIII, No. 2 / November 1 1 3
new one - based in private (bourgeois) pur-
chases and typified by alternative gallery
shows like the Salon des Refuses -was that
"Impressionism represented ... a class ex-
ponentially broader and more diverse than
any previous ruling class." In the process of
enacting what may be termed a bourgeois
revolution in painting, Impressionism helped
make the roles of both art-producer (artist)
and art-consumer (buyer) more fluid than
they had been before. As Higonnet writes,
Impressionism provided cultural
opportunities for new sorts of people,
including some it had never intended
to enfranchise. Like women. Morisot
understood immediately how each
and every aspect of Impressionism
gave women a chance at artistic
careers. Impressionism ignored the
artistic institutions to which women
had little or no access, and it advo-
cated a kind of art potentially
consonant with the sort of painting
women - middle-class women, at
least- had been allowed and even
encouraged to pursue. Impression-
ism, Morisot realized, offered her the
opportunity to negotiate a compro-
mise between personal and
professional imperatives. (p. 96)
Morisot's gender affected the image of
Impressionism, even as the movement al-
lowed her to trespass her gender's normal
restraints. Her very presence in the Societe
Anonyme, which orchestrated the 1874
show, and the specific content and style of
her paintings, contributed to the casting of
Impressionism by conservative critics as a
radical challenge to convention. Comment-
ing on one critic's appraisal of Impres-
sionists as those who "made the [Salon] jury
undoubtedly that it included a
tremble," Higonnet comments:
woman, the caliber of whose work
To no woman artist had such power
ever before been ascribed, even in
jest. One reason Impressionism was
perceived as being so radical was
astutely points out that much of Morisot's
work can be seen to follow
a feminine pattern set for decades by
amateur women painters: The
daughters, sisters, and wives of the
bourgeoisie playing their appointed
roles ... She retooled and rethought
feminine popular imagery [like that
found in fashion-plates] just as her
fellow Impressionists reworked a
wider range of equally prevalent
images. (pp. 102-103)
"~~~~~~4 'L _4'"" X Ultimately, Higonnet addresses more
than the social and psychological condi-
tions that enabled Morisot to become a
"great woman artist." She also questions the
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~4" very category of greatness. Taking aim at
those who deride Morisot's painting as
repetitive (as compared, for example, to that
of Monet), Higonnet suggests that the male
Impressionists were the true repeaters.
i 1 ~~~~~~~~~.,44.' Since the earliest depictions of madonnas
and whores, men have captured women on
canvas in various modes of idealization
and debasement. To understand Morisot's
a E _~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~4 achievement, we have to ask:
what about other grounds [of great-
lu _~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~44,44
ness]? For Morisot was trying to do
something different. She was trying to
understand the effects of self-
Sl-Potat by '0t'Moio,1F.FomBrh Mrst
consciousness. Her women are
preparing for the kind of scrutiny
Manet and Renoir engaged in ...
They are not yet, and never simply,
objects for masculine consumption.
(p. 147)
Anne Higonnet makes an excellent case
for re-routing our assumptions about artis-
tic achievement. And she makes it impera-
tive that we reconsider the achievements of
intended her to occupy this promi-
Berthe Morisot. Vs
nent position is unclear. (p. 112)
1 Linda Nochlin, "Why Have T
made her impossible to ignore. The
Just as their reasons for joining the move-Great Women Artists?" most
press assigned Morisot a place at the
ment may have differed, men and women Women, Art, and Power and O
forefront of the Impressionist move-
Impressionists also worked on different (Harper and Row, 1988).
ment. Whether all the exhibitors had
themes, from different traditions. Higonnet

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L4The Women's Review or Books /Vol. VIII, No. 2 / November 1990

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