Summer's Day
Berthe Morisot·1879
Historical Context
Summer's Day was exhibited at the fifth Impressionist exhibition in 1880 and depicts two fashionably dressed young women in a boat on a lake in the Bois de Boulogne — one of Morisot's most luminous and socially acute observations of bourgeois feminine leisure. The image captures a specific social practice: the Sunday boating that had become fashionable in Paris's parks and on the Seine. Unlike the mixed-sex boating scenes of Renoir and Caillebotte, Morisot's figures are women alone, navigating their own leisure without male accompaniment.
Technical Analysis
The two figures fill most of the picture surface against a shimmering lake background, painted with Morisot's most confident Impressionist touch — flickering strokes of blue, green, and white build the water.
