Girl in a Boat with Geese

Painted in 1889, this outdoor scene of a young woman in a boat on a garden pond combines Morisot's characteristic interest in female leisure, water, and the domestic garden. The geese introduce an element of gentle animal life that animates the composition. During the late 1880s Morisot's style was growing increasingly loose and experimental, influenced by her friend Renoir and by the general push within the Impressionist circle toward freer, more decorative handling. The National Gallery of Art holds this lively late-career canvas.

Morisot uses her characteristic broken, feathery strokes to render the boat, water, and geese as a shimmering ensemble of white, green, and blue. The composition is delightfully informal, the figures and animals arranged as if glimpsed in passing. The water's surface is particularly deftly evoked with minimal, precise marks.