Young girl on the couch

Painted in 1893 and now in the Musée Léon-Dierx on Réunion, this canvas shows a young girl reclining on a couch in a pose of relaxed informality. Morisot's late recumbent figures — whether children on sofas or women reclining outdoors — explore states of ease and unconscious self-display that she found more interesting than the posed formality of conventional portraiture. The Réunion museum's holding is unusual, reflecting the French overseas territories' cultural connections to metropolitan art institutions.

The couch's upholstery and the girl's relaxed form are rendered with loose, varied strokes in a warm domestic palette. Morisot's late handling gives the figure a slightly dissolved quality, the boundaries between person and furniture softened by the free application of paint across both forms simultaneously.