''Summer's Day'' (or ''Jour d'eté'') is an oil on canvas painting by the French

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

painter

Berthe Morisot Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (; January 14, 1841 – March 2, 1895) was a French painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. In 1864, Morisot exhibited for the first time in the highly es ...

, created in 1879. The painting depicts two women seated in a row boat, and was painted in the

Bois de Boulogne The Bois de Boulogne (, "Boulogne woodland") is a large public park located along the western edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine. The land was ceded to the city of Paris by t ...

. It is held at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

, in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

History

During the winter of 1878-1879, Morisot had her first child, Julie. The following summer, she walked every day with Julie and her nurse in the Bois de Boulogne. After a long period spent indoors, it gave her the wish to start painting outdoors again. However, she did not wanted to leave her child alone with her nanny for long periods of time. Finally, she found a balance between her maternal duty and her wish to resume her painting, by bringing her models to the park, so she could work there and be with Julie at the same time. Morisot exhibited ''Summer's Day'' during the Fifth Great Impressionist Exhibition, in 1880, along with several other works she produced during the summer of 1879. In fact, for the first time, her paintings were received with plenty of enthusiasm and critics particularly praised her subtle use of color.

Description

The painting shows a sunny scene by the water, with two young women in a rowing boat. The venue is the

, where Parisians used to escape from their bustling city. Two fashionably dressed women have boarded a boat for a trip. Morisot suggests a fleeting impression and reinforces this idea with small details, such as the carriage with its horses speeding past in the background. Morisot gives a spontaneous image of the two women waiting for the boat to be pushed from shore. However, this spontaneity can be described as relative. Her composition is extremely well thought out, as evidenced, among other things, by a watercolor study for this painting, in which she replicates the motif almost identically. The women depicted are not accidental extras either, but professional models. The two women also posed for

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Born ...

and were painted once again by Morisot later that summer, also in the Bois de Boulogne, while picking flowers. The composition, very studied, is based on three planes: in the foreground, the two young women, with the young woman in the light dress being in the center of the painting; the second plane is occupied by water and ducks, and the third plane features the grove of trees in the background. Morisot painted ''Summer's Day'' in her typical Impressionist style. She applies large amounts of paint using very flexible brush strokes, so that the finished work has fine lines and spots as well as thick spots. The result is an irregular texture of paint, which deviates completely from the smooth structure prescribed by the art academy of the time. With energetic brushstrokes that fly in all directions, Morisot follows what the light tells her. As in almost all her works, Morisot places particular emphasis on the feminine aspect, notably through the choice of motifs and a sensitive representation. The two women occupy the entire foreground, in the boat where they are seated. Visually, Morisot is very close to them and clearly focuses on the psychology of the characters. Morisot employed a rather unusual palette in this painting. She painted the dark blue coat of the woman on the left with cerulean blue which was rarely used by the Impressionists. The green foliage is painted in a mixture of

emerald green Varieties of the color green may differ in hue, chroma (also called saturation or intensity) or lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint b ...

viridian Viridian is a blue-green pigment, a hydrated chromium(III) oxide, of medium saturation and relatively dark in value. It is composed of a majority of green, followed by blue. Specifically, it is a shade of spring green, which places the color b ...

lead white White lead is the basic lead carbonate 2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2. It is a complex salt, containing both carbonate and hydroxide ions. White lead occurs naturally as a mineral, in which context it is known as hydrocerussite, a hydrate of cerussite. It was ...

and cadmium yellow. Cadmium yellow was not yet widely used at this time.

Ownership

Ownership of the painting, part of the disputed Lane Bequest, has been shared since 1959 between the

, in

and the

Hugh Lane Gallery The Hugh Lane Gallery, officially Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane and originally the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, is an art museum operated by Dublin City Council and its subsidiary, the Hugh Lane Gallery Trust. It is in Charlemont House ( ...

, in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. The painting has been in the

since 1917. The ownership dispute between the National Gallery and the Dublin gallery was due to be resolved in 2019.

Theft

On 12 April 1956, the painting was stolen from the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in London, by two Irish students, Paul Hogan and Billy Fogarty, while it was on display there. They stole it in order to highlight Ireland's claim to the Hugh Lane Bequest. It was later recovered after being left anonymously at the Irish Embassy.

References

{{Berthe Morisot 1879 paintings Paintings by Berthe Morisot Birds in art Maritime paintings Stolen works of art Recovered works of art Collections of the National Gallery, London

History

Description

Ownership

Theft

See also

References