A fabulous trip to the Berthe Morisot exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery yesterday… we see her now as a trailblazer and moderniser, shaping Impressionism and foreshadowing Monet, Renoir and Munch, while subtly saying much about the male gaze and gender roles. That was all there, of course, but the show looked backward to the 18th century too, with her responses to Fragonard, Reynolds and others as she sought to rehabilitate art from before the French Revolution.
The confidence of her line drawing and brushstrokes is astonishing, moving and inspiring. She turned the social and gender constraints she experienced into opportunities to work in a new way, and we are so much the richer for it. A real art hero!
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