Study for ‘Young Girl in a Green Coat’ c. 1894

Berthe Morisot made this sketch, ‘Study for Young Girl in a Green Coat,’ with graphite on paper. The young girl's coat, with its enveloping fur collar, immediately captures our attention. Garments, across epochs, often serve as powerful symbols of status and protection. Consider how, in ancient portraiture, the draping of robes signified authority. Likewise, this coat, while ostensibly for warmth, hints at bourgeois comfort. But Morisot subtly subverts this symbolism. The sketch-like quality, the girl's somewhat melancholic gaze, hints at an underlying vulnerability, perhaps reflecting the constraints placed upon women in her era. This interplay between protection and vulnerability, status and emotion, is not linear but cyclical. We see echoes of it in countless works. Here, Morisot engages our collective memory, prompting a subconscious recognition of the complex relationship between appearance and inner life.