Young Woman in a Blue Blouse 1889

Berthe Morisot made this portrait, Young Woman in a Blue Blouse, using pastel on paper. Pastels are interesting; they are essentially pure pigment, the same stuff that goes into paint, but held together with just enough binder to form a stick. Think of chalk, but oily, and full of intense color. Morisot is really just smearing pure color directly onto the page here, with minimal mediation. Look at how this affects the image – see how soft and intimate the portrait feels? The pastel medium really lends itself to the impressionistic style, that feeling of a fleeting impression. It's quick, spontaneous. And there’s nothing fussy or labored about it. This reflects the social world Morisot inhabited; a world of bourgeois leisure, where the everyday was elevated to high art. With its delicate touch, it invites us into a world of domestic intimacy and fleeting beauty.