Musée No:397.001
Regular price £25.00Artist: Berthe Morisot
Peonies
Date: 1869
Berthe Morisot (1841 – 1895) was a French painter and a member of the Impressionists. Born into a wealthy family, apparently she and her sister originally started taking lessons so that they could each make a drawing for their father for his birthday. In 1874, she joined the "rejected" Impressionists in the first of their own exhibitions, which included Cézanne, Degas, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley. It’s hard to imagine a time when the Impressionists weren’t accepted and loved, but back in the 1874 they were avant-garde and disliked. I love this now outrageous description from Le Figaro critic, Albert Wolff, who noted that the Impressionists consisted of "five or six lunatics of which one is a woman...[whose] feminine grace is maintained amid the outpourings of a delirious mind."
Berthe was married to Eugène Manet, the brother of Édouard Manet. Julie, their only child often posed for her mother and other artistic friends including Renoir and her uncle Édouard. Berthe's home became a meeting place for painters and writers alike, including Renoir, Degas, Mary Cassatt and Stéphane Mallarmé.
She captures the beauty of these pink peonies just perfectly. Did you know that in the 'Language of Flowers' peonies stand for romance, prosperity, good fortune, a happy marriage, riches, honour, and compassion — but also bashfulness. It is often given for twelfth wedding anniversaries as a symbol of a happy relationship.