Woman and Child in a Meadow at Bougival
Berthe Morisot·1882
Historical Context
Painted in 1882 and now in the National Museum Cardiff, this canvas showing a woman and child in a Bougival meadow belongs to Morisot's series of summer outdoor subjects painted during her family's annual retreats to the Seine valley west of Paris. Bougival was a favorite resort of Impressionist painters — Renoir, Sisley, and others painted there extensively — and its meadows, river, and orchards provided ideal conditions for the plein-air painting central to Impressionist practice.
Technical Analysis
The open meadow setting allows Morisot to explore the full brightness of summer outdoor light, the woman's pale dress catching sunlight while the surrounding grass is rendered in varied greens and warm yellows. The child and adult are brought close together, their figures loosely rendered against the expansive meadow and sky.
