In the wheat
Berthe Morisot·1875
Historical Context
In the Wheat was painted in the early 1890s when Morisot had a house at Mézy-sur-Seine, and depicts a figure among tall wheat stalks in a manner that fully dissolves the boundary between the human subject and the natural environment. The wheat field as a setting appears in Morisot's work of this period with a new interest in total atmospheric envelopment — the figure surrounded by and becoming part of the golden wheat — that aligns her with the late Impressionist interest in the figure-in-environment rather than figure-against-background.
Technical Analysis
Tall wheat stalks are rendered in warm ochre, gold, and pale yellow — strokes at varied angles suggesting height and movement in the light. A pale figure emerges from or is engulfed within this sea of warm colour, the whole surface treated with equal spontaneity.
