In the Dining Room

1886 · Painting

Sul dipinto

In the Dining Room is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French impressionist artist Berthe Morisot, created in 1886. It shows a young woman in the center of the domestic environment of a dining room. The painting is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C.

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Scheda

Numero di inventario: 1963.10.185

Nel frattempo, nella vita di Berthe Morisot

Tutta la vita

1875–1885
Oil, watercolour and pastel at once
Grown more confident in oil, Morisot, like Degas, works in oil, watercolour and pastel at the same time. She paints very quickly but prepares with countless studies, so that she can paint “a mouth, eyes, and a nose with a single brushstroke”.
1885–1887
A turn to drawing: line and form
After 1885 drawing begins to dominate Morisot's work: she experiments with charcoal and coloured pencils and clarifies form and line, influenced by photography and Japonism. Like the Japanese prints of the time, she places objects away from the centre of the composition.
1887–1895
Squaring and tracing paper: the synthesis of her last years
Morisot starts to use squaring and tracing paper to transcribe her drawings exactly onto the canvas, which lets her build compositions with more complicated interaction between figures. Her late works are distinctive for their synthesis of the Impressionist touch with broad strokes and light reflections and the graphic approach of clear lines.
1888–1889
From short strokes to long, sinuous ones
In 1888–89 Morisot's brushstrokes change from short, rapid ones to long, sinuous ones that define form; the outer edges of her paintings are often left unfinished, so that the canvas shows through and increases the sense of spontaneity.

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