Beschreibung:

Morisot (Berthe, 1841-1895). Sketch of Julie Manet circa 1890, pencil drawing, on the verso of a leaf of squared paper with rounded corners taken from a sketchbook, showing a young girl reclining with her head on a pillow, inscribed by the artist in pencil below the image ‘Mezy dernier[?] soir’, partially toned (from mount aperture), recto with pencil sketch of a seated female figure, leaf size 148 x 83mm (6 x 3.25ins), tipped onto card, mounted, framed and glazed. Provenance: From the Roy Davids Collection. Julie Manet was the only child of Berthe Morisot and her husband Eugene Manet, brother of Edouard. She frequently posed as a model for her mother and other artists, including Renoir and her uncle Edouard. The Musee Marmottan in Paris houses an important collection of works by Berthe Morisot including seven sketchbooks; one of these is a small notebook used by Morisot at Mezy between 1890 and 1892, which has squared leaves with rounded corners matching the format of our leaf (see Bridgeman Art Library). The majority of the collection was bequeathed to the Museum by Julie Manet’s son Denis Rouart, with a further bequest from Julien Rouart (also Morisot’s grandson) and his wife Therese. Mezy is a small village in the valley of the Seine to the northwest of Paris. Berthe and Eugene first rented a house in Mezy in 1890, the Maison Blotiere, and then in 1891 purchased the seventeenth century Chateau du Mesnil there. Renoir stayed with Morisot and her family at Mezy at least once in 1890, and both he and Berthe used Julie as a model during this time. (1)