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Berthe Morisot
French, 1841–1895
The Bath
1885–86
Morisot used a light palette and long, broad brushstrokes to record this seemingly spontaneous, private moment. The young woman is actually a family friend who often posed for the artist. She is shown here raising her arms to tie her hair, unselfconscious despite her state of partial undress. Although the painting was widely praised when it was exhibited at the final Impressionist exhibition in 1886, it remained unsold and was eventually acquired by the artist’s friend Claude Monet.
Image Caption
Berthe Morisot, The Bath, 1885–86, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.926
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
36 1/4 x 28 7/8 in. (92.1 x 73.3 cm)
Frame: 43 7/8 x 36 1/4 x 3 1/4 in. (111.4 x 92.1 x 8.3 cm)
Object Number
1955.926
Acquisition
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status
On View
Select Bibliography
. Eighth Impressionist Exhibition.. 1886.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Five, Supplement: South Gallery. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1959. Mount Holyoke College Art Museum.. Berthe Morisot, Impressionist. March 14-May 22, 1988; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Sept. 6-Nov. 19, 1987; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Dec. 14, 1987-Feb. 22, 1988. Cat. by Charles F. Stuckey and William P. Scott. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Kern, Steven, et al. The Clark: Selections from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996. White, Barbara Ehrlich. Impressionists Side by Side: Their Friendships, Rivalries and Artistic Exchanges. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. Ruth Berson.. The New Painting, Impressionism 1874-1886. Documentation, 2 vols.. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.. 1996.. Anonymous. "Nineteenth-Century Painting and Sculpture." The Magazine Antiques 152 (October 1997): 522–31. Bray, Xavier, Bill Scott, and Juliet Wilson-Bareau. Mujeres Impresionistas: La otra mirada. Exhibition catalogue. Bilbao: Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2001. Patry, Sylvie, Hugues Wilhelm, and Sylvie Patin. Berthe Morisot (1841-1895). Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Mar. 8-Jun. 9, 2002; Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, Jun. 20-Nov. 19, 2002. Édition de la Réunion des musées nationaux and Fondation Pierre Gianadda. 2002. Conforti, Michael, et al. The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven: distributed by Yale University Press, 2006. Søndergaard, Sidsel Maria, ed. Women in Impressionism: From Mythical Feminine to Modern Woman. Exhibition catalogue. Milan and Copenhagen: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek with Skira Editore, 2006. Ganz, James A. and Richard R. Brettell. Great French Paintings from the Clark: Barbizon through Impressionism. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2011. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.
Provenance
The artist (d. 1895); Claude Monet, Paris (by 1896-d. 1926); Michel Monet, Paris, his son, by descent (1926–at least 1941); [Knoedler, New York, sold to Clark, 30 Nov. 1949, as Au Bain]; Robert Sterling Clark (1949–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.