Jeune Fille Au Manteau Vert 1894

Berthe Morisot painted “Jeune Fille Au Manteau Vert” with watercolor on paper. Morisot, one of the few female Impressionists, worked during a time when women's roles in society were sharply defined and limited. Morisot subverts traditional representation by focusing on intimate domestic scenes and portraits of women, observed through a distinctly female gaze. Here, the young girl is depicted wearing a fashionable green coat, but her expression and pose suggest a sense of introspection. There's a quietness, a stillness that invites contemplation. The fluidity of watercolor enhances the ethereal quality of the scene, creating an atmosphere of delicate transience. Morisot once wrote: “I don't think there has ever been a man who treated a woman as an equal, and that's all I would have asked, for I know I'm worth as much as they are.” In reflecting the interior lives of women, Morisot challenges the prevailing patriarchal standards of her time. The painting acts as a subtle act of resistance.