Sous-Bois

Berthe Morisot was a founding member of the Impressionist group — she exhibited in seven of the eight Impressionist exhibitions, more than Monet, Renoir, or Sisley. She was the great-granddaughter of Fragonard, married Édouard Manet's brother Eugène, and was consistently described by her peers as one of the most talented painters in the circle. She died in 1895 at fifty-four. Sous-Bois (Undergrowth) was painted the year before her death. Trees stand in a pale, sun-flooded woodland rendered almost entirely in washes of yellow, cream, and gray-green watercolor, with scattered touches of teal and rust. A faint figure is visible at the left. The painting is barely there — most of the paper is exposed, and the trees are drawn in a few curving gray lines with color laid in loosely around them.