Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
Summer's Day
Berthe Morisot · Impressionism
- Artist
- Berthe Morisot (1841–1895)
- Date
- 1879
- Dimensions
- 45.7 x 75.3 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- National Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Summer's Day shows two young women in a rowing boat on the lake of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. One holds an umbrella and looks out at the viewer, the other gazes at a duck swimming beside the boat.
A closer look
Morisot painted the scene with extraordinarily rapid, free brushstrokes: the water, the trees and the dresses dissolve into zigzags and flicks of colour, and the figures seem to shimmer in the light. The boat and its passengers are barely defined, yet the impression of a warm summer afternoon is complete. Morisot's technique was among the boldest of all the Impressionists, and critics at the time sometimes considered her paintings unfinished. Today they are admired for their freshness and spontaneity.
