Boat on the Quay 1875

Berthe Morisot made this watercolor, Boat on the Quay, in France sometime in the late nineteenth century. Morisot was one of a group of artists in Paris who chose to paint modern life. She was an impressionist, a group of artists who wanted to capture how light, color, and movement look to the eye, as well as to represent contemporary life. Boat on the Quay seems to depict a transient scene of commerce and transportation. But Morisot also had an eye for how public institutions such as the art academy and the national museums created barriers for women artists. Although she exhibited with the impressionists, she was excluded from other venues simply because she was a woman. To understand Morisot’s art, we can study the cultural background of nineteenth-century Paris. We can look at the changing role of women in French society, and we can also look at the ways that institutions like the Salon shaped who got to be an artist.