Museum of Fine Arts Houston Introducing “An Impressionist Autumn”….

This has been a month in our city of recognizing very special women. It was just last week that we recognized one of our city founders, C. Baldwin Hotel namesake, Charlotte Baldwin Allen as the unsung hero of the original founders of our Bayou City. Beginning this Sunday, October 20, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston will feature two exhibitions. One is the works of Berthe Morisol, the woman who was one of the originals in the Impressionist movement and the other is a private collection: Monet to Picasso that will highlight 30 pieces of art, never before seen as an entire collection anywhere…..Houston would be a first.

The special collection, which features a great variety from different artists is spectacular. However, for this exhibition I was particularly drawn to the works of Berthe Morisot and the wonderful commentary that curator Helga Aurisch provided that gave us such insight into the woman. The exhibition illuminates the artist’s role as an essential figure within the Impressionist movement that had been quietly unnoticed. Morisot’s domestic scenes focus on children, family and flowers, capturing a woman’s life in the late 19th century. Through her portrayal of the human figure, Morisot was able to explore the themes of modern life that came to define Impressionism. As a founding member along with Monet, Degas, Sisley and Renoir, Morisot she did achieve critical and commercial success during her lifetime. The selection of works on view do reveal a painter who, as only one of two women within the Impressionist movement and against the norms of her time and social status, became an important member of the Parisian avant-garde from the late 1860’s until her death in 1895.

Berthe Morisot: Impressionist Original highlights the artist’s approach to portraiture and her focus on the life of women in modern Paris, her singular role in the French Impressionist movement. Following upon the recent internationally touring retrospective of the artist’s work, the exhibit will feature two dozen paintings from public and private lenders, including four important works here in Houston, exclusive to MFAH that had not been part of the traveling exhibition. Below are some highlights from the exhibit…..

Berthe Morisot

“We are fortunate to present for the first time 30 major modern paintings from a significant private collection. While individual works have been loaned to museums over the years, this group has never been exhibited together before,” said Gary Tinterow, director of Museum of Fine Arts Houston. “Paired with a focused selection of Berte Morisot’s paintings, the two exhibitions together capture a ‘Who’s Who’ of the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Early Modern movements, the artists who defined French art at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries.”

Monet to Picasso: A Very Private Collection features 30 paintings by the pivotal artists who sparked the major movements of the late 19th through mid-20th centuries. This exclusive exhibit to MFAH has been assembled over decades and is so interesting as it does not feature only one artist but a collection of the most important artists of this time with a select representation of all. It chronicles key moments in the development of modern art in Paris: the evolution of Impressionism from its roots in the work of artists, including Corot, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and one of two females, Mary Cassatt. Also, there is the Post-Impressionist painters, including Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin and Paul Cézanne. Lastly, the leading figures of the 20th-century abstraction including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Fernand Léger and more. Following are some highlights from that special collection…..

Monet to Picasso: A Very Private Collection

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