Eugene Manet on the Isle of Wight 1875

Curator: Here we have Berthe Morisot's 1875 painting, "Eugene Manet on the Isle of Wight." She uses oil paints in this plein-air landscape portrait. Editor: Wow, it has this dreamy, faraway feeling. Like spying on a memory fading at the edges. I find that curtain adds this certain wistful veil. Curator: It's a really interesting interplay, isn't it? She's placing her husband, Eugene, within the domestic space of the interior but visually connecting him, and us, to the leisure and outdoor space that exists behind the flowers on the windowsill. Editor: I suppose she's offering a glimpse into their daily life, domestic tranquility, in a moment of gentle repose. I mean, look how delicately she captures the light dancing through those garden blossoms and filtering across Eugene's figure. It is a captured moment, that is so lovely in the artist’s perspective. It has some spontaneity. Curator: And the location of the Isle of Wight is interesting. The Isle was well-known as a Victorian resort. To be able to engage in these leisurely travel practices indicated a certain level of comfort and social class that Impressionist works like this both depict and often benefited from through patronage. The Manets and Morisot certainly weren’t peasants toiling in the field as were subjects in earlier rural landscape paintings. Editor: Exactly. Although it looks as if that hat, cane, and trimmed beard suggests a deliberate attempt to distance the art-consuming bourgeoise from association to laborers. Perhaps I'm feeling his longing. The light does dance off him, like waves reflecting sun, in an optimistic mood, regardless. Curator: I'd agree with the observation, though the loose brushstrokes typical of Impressionism also democratize the art object to a degree, suggesting the ephemerality of these transient social scenes, making high society appear not so serious or lasting. It is of course also simply easier and faster to paint that way! Editor: Ha! A Materialist perspective is needed. In all, one walks away refreshed, much as a light sea breeze is able to revitalize one after a stroll along the coast. Curator: An excellent summation of Morisot's method, if I do say so myself! The play of textures and social commentary invites multiple interpretations and truly transports us.