Cleveland Museum of Art

Mademoiselle Louise Riesener in a Hat

Berthe Morisot

Date

c. 1877–80

Medium

pastel on pale blue laid paper

Culture

France, 19th century

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This portrait depicts Louise Riesener, daughter of artist Léon Riesener and close friend of Morisot. The artist depicted her subject in bust-length profile wearing a black jacket out of which peek the decorative ties of a white blouse. Morisot paid particular attention to the hat; a fashionable Parisian woman of the upper-middle class would have worn such an accessory whenever she went out in public. Morisot produced nearly 200 pastels during her career, the majority figure studies and portraits brought to varying degrees of finish. Morisot favored the (formerly) blue paper used here for pastels and used it for numerous works.

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