Artwork
Peonies
Peonies is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Berthe Morisot. It dates from 1869 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Technique & Style
Executed in 1869, this still life by Berthe Morisot utilizes oil paint applied to a canvas support.
Executed in 1869, this still life by Berthe Morisot utilizes oil paint applied to a canvas support. The work measures approximately 40.8 by 33 centimeters and focuses formally on the depiction of flowers. Physically, the painting shares a historical connection to another work, Hanging the Laundry out to Dry, as both were discovered mounted on the same stretcher prior to 1980.
This shared mounting suggests a specific handling history where the two canvases were joined or stored together for an extended period, remaining unknown to scholars until their joint discovery. The medium and support combination is characteristic of Morisot's practice during this late 1860s period, though specific brushwork details or current conservation status beyond the stretcher association are not elaborated upon in the available records.
History & Provenance
Peonies was painted in 1869 as an oil on canvas still life by Berthe Morisot. No record of a commission survives. Before 1980 the work’s history is undocumented; it was then found sharing a stretcher with Morisot’s Hanging the Laundry out to Dry (NGA 1985.64.28), suggesting it once belonged to the de Bellio collection.
Thereafter it passed through the Paul Rosenberg galleries in London, New York and Paris, and was sold in 1950 together with its companion piece to collector Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia. Mellon bequeathed the painting to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., where it entered the collection as a gift in 1994.
Berthe Morisot's 1869 oil painting Peonies is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The work entered the museum's holdings in 1994 as a gift from Paul Mellon, having previously been sold to him in 1950 through Paul Rosenberg and Co. Prior to its discovery in 1980, the painting was unknown to scholars and did not appear in Georges Wildenstein's 1961 catalogue raisonné; it was found sharing a stretcher with another Morisot work already in the National Gallery's collection. While specific accession numbers and a detailed record of public exhibitions are not provided in the available documentation, the provenance traces back potentially to the de Bellio collection before passing through the Rosenberg gallery.
Overview
This oil on canvas, titled Peonies, was created by the French Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot around 1869. The work is a still life, capturing a vibrant bouquet of peonies arranged in a vase. It exemplifies her early engagement with subjects and techniques characteristic of the burgeoning Impressionist movement.
Context
As a prominent figure within the Parisian avant-garde, Berthe Morisot was closely associated with artists like Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. Before her participation in the inaugural Impressionist exhibition in 1874, she had already shown her work at the official Paris Salon. Peonies reflects her artistic development during a pivotal period leading up to the formal emergence of Impressionism.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot was a French painter, printmaker and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists.
