Study for "Young Girl in a Green Coat"

Art Historical Context

Berthe Morisot, a pioneering female Impression, created this delicate pencil study around 1894, near the end of her career As one of the few women in the male-dominated Impressionist circle—alongside contemporaries like Edgar Degas and Claude Monet—Morisot in intimate scenes of women and children, capturing fleeting moments of everyday life with a fresh, luminous touch. This drawing for her painting *Young Girl in a Coat* reflects her fascination with youth and femininity, themes central to her oeuvre, and showcases her skill in translating observed reality into art during the vibrant cultural shifts of fin-de-siècle Paris. Executed on polished buff laid paper—a smooth, warm-toned surface ideal for subtle graphite shading and precise lines—the work measures a modest 6 7/8 × 4 3/16 inches, emphasizing its intimate, sketch-like quality. Morisot's technique here reveals her preparatory process: quick, gestural strokes that suggest form, fabric folds, and soft contours, anticipating the loose brushwork of her finished oils. Such studies were vital for Impressionists, allowing rapid experimentation with light and pose before committing to canvas. Housed in the Robert Lehman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this drawing highlights Morisot's technical mastery and her role in advancing women's presence in art history. Visitors will appreciate its tender portrayal of a girl, evoking the gentle, personal world Morisot so eloquently depicted.

About the Artist

Berthe Morisot · 1841–1895

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) was a founding member of the Impressionist movement and one of the most significant women artists of the 19th century. Born into an affluent bourgeois family in Bourges, France—her mother was a great-niece of the Rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard—Morisot received serious artistic training despite the social constraints facing women of her class. Under the guidance of...