Artwork App

Painted portrait dominated by loose, large brushstrokes of a woman, seen from the back, wearing a gauzy white off-the-shoulder dress and black choker, blond hair swept up, examining herself in a mirror at left. The background is a feathered swirl suggesting floral pattern in cool pale tones of gray, purple, pink, and blue.

60.3 × 80.4 cm (23 3/4 × 31 5/8 in.); Framed: 85.8 × 105.5 × 10.5 cm (33 3/4 × 41 1/2 × 4 1/8 in.)

Woman at Her Toilette

In Woman at Her Toilette, Berthe Morisot provided a glimpse into the private life of a Parisienne—one of the fashionable, urban women who epitomized modernity in late nineteenth-century France. The ﬁgure is shown at her vanity table after a ball, still wearing her earrings and a velvet ribbon around her neck as she reaches up to take down her chignon hairstyle. In the background, Morisot’s soft, feathery brushstrokes suggest a ﬂ oral-patterned bedspread and wallpaper. The artist applied the same gauzy technique to the mirror, obscuring the ﬁ gure’s reﬂection and thus disrupting the trope of women gazing into mirrors as a symbol of vanity. Morisot signed her name along the bottom of the mirror, an enigmatic detail that may suggest that the ﬁgure is a stand-in for the artist herself.

Consistent with the Impressionist aesthetic that Morisot fervently espoused, In Woman at Her Toilette attempts to capture the essence of modern life in summary, understated terms. Morisot exhibited in seven of the eight Impressionist group shows; in 1880 this painting was included in the ﬁfth exhibition, where her work received high acclaim. In addition to domestic interiors such as this one, Morisot’s pictorial realm included studies of women and children, gardens, ﬁelds, and vacation homes by the sea.

Credit Line

Stickney Fund

Colors

Exhibition History

Possibly Paris, 2éme Exposition de Peinture (1), Apr. 1876. [see D. Rouart, Correspondence de Berthe Morisot (Paris, 1950), pp. 98, 257] Paris, 5me Expostition de Peinture, 1880, cat. 115. Paris, Durand-Ruel, Berthe Morisot, Exposition de son oeuvre, Mar. 1896, cat. 68. London, Durand-Ruel at the Grafton Galleries, A Selection From the Pictures by Boudin, Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, cat. 162 (ill.). Pittsburgh, Penn., Carnegie Institute, Exhibition of Paintings Édouard Manet, Pierre Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Oct.-Dec. 1924, cat. 29 (ill.). The Arts Club of Chicago, Exhibitions of Paintings of Three Woman Painters, Nov. 1931, not listed in cat. The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1-Nov. 1, 1933, cat. 334 (ill.). The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1-Nov. 1, 1934, cat. 257. The Toledo Museum of Art, French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, Nov. 1934, cat. 11. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, French Painting from David to Toulouse-Lautrec, Feb.-Mar. 1941, cat. 95 (ill.). The Arts Club of Chicago, Berthe Morisot, Mar.-Apr. 1943, cat. 1. New York, Wildenstien and Co., Berthe Morisot, Nov.-Dec. 10, 1960, cat. 12 (ill.). New York, Wildenstein and Co., Paris–New York: A Continuing Romance, Nov. 3-Dec. 19, 1977, cat. 76 (ill.). Southampton, New York, The Parrish Art Museum, William Merritt Chase in the Company of Friends, May 12- July 29, 1979, cat. 79 (ill.). St. Petersburg, Florida, Museum of Fine Arts, Paris in the Belle Epoque: People and Places, Mar. 1-Apr. 6, 1980, cat. 56 (ill.). Albi, Musée Toulouse- Lautrec, Trésors impressionnistes du Musée de Chicago, June 27-Aug. 31, 1980, cat. 23 (ill.). Tokyo, The Seibu Museum of Art, The Impressionist Tradition: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 18-Dec. 17, 1985, cat. 21 (ill.); Fukuoka Art Museum, Jan. 5-Feb. 2, 1986 and Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Mar. 4-Apr. 13, 1986. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, Jan. 17- Apr. 6, 1986, cat. 96 (ill.); Fine Art Museum of San Francisco, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Apr. 19- July 6, 1986. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Berthe Morisot: Impressionist, Sep. 6-Nov. 29, 1987, cat. 35; Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, Dec. 12, 1987-Feb. 21, 1988; Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Mar. 14-May 9, 1988, shown in Washington and Forth Worth only. Leningrad [St. Petersburg], Hermitage Museum, Ot Delakrua do Matissa: shedevry frantsuzskoĭ zhivopici XIX-nachala XX veka, iz Muieia Metropoliten v Niu-Ĭorke i Khudozhestvennogo Instituta v Chikago [From Delacroix to Matisse: Great Paintings From the XIX century to the Beginning of the XXth century From Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago], Mar. 15-May 19, 1988, cat. 18; Moscow, Pushkin Museum, June 10-July 30, 1988. Lille, Palais de Beaux-Arts de Lille, Berthe Morisot 1841-1895, Mar. 10-June 9, 2002, cat .49 (ill.); Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, June 20-Nov. 19, 2002. Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Woman in Impressionism: From Mythical Feminine to Modern Woman, Oct. 6, 2006-Jan. 21, 2007, cat. 71 (ill.). Fort Worth, Tex., Kimbell Museum of Art, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, June 29–Nov. 2, 2008, cat. 19 (ill.). Paris, Musée Luxembourg, Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Market, Oct. 9, 2014-Feb. 8, 2015, cat. 60; London, National Gallery, Mar. 4-May 31, 2015; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Inventing Impressionism, June 18-Sep. 13, 2015. Williamstown, MA, Clark Art Institute, Women Artists in Paris, June 8 - Sep. 3, 2018 Philadelphia, Barnes Foundation, Berthe Morisot, Woman Impressionist, Oct. 20, 2018 - Jan. 14, 2019, cat. 30; Dallas Museum of Art, Feb. 24 - May 26, 2019; Paris, Musée d'Orsay, June 17 - Sep. 22, 2019, cat. 30. Paris, Musée d'Orsay, Berthe Morisot, June 18-Sep. 22, 2019, cat. 37. London, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Berthe Morisot: Shaping Impressionism, Apr. 5 - Sep. 10, 2023, cat. 7; Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet, Oct. 18, 2023 - Mar. 10, 2024. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, Manet & Morisot, Oct. 11, 2025-Feb. 15, 2026, no cat. no., pl. 45; Cleveland Museum of Art, Mar. 29–July 5, 2026 (San Francisco only)